Sophisticated Phishing Attack Exposed Over 600,000 Users to Data Theft; 16 Chrome Extensions Hacked
A sophisticated phishing attack exposed 600, 000 user data to theft as 16 Chrome Extensions got hacked amounting to credential theft. The attack targeted extension publishers through phishing emails where Developers were tricked into granting access to a malicious OAuth app via fake Chrome Web Store emails. The malicious update mimicked official communications from the Chrome Web Store, stealing sensitive user data.
This breach puts Facebook ad users at high risk of account hacking or unknown access
Summary of the attack
The phishing email was designed to create a sense of urgency posing as Google Chrome Web Store Developer Support, warns the employee of the extension removal for policy violations. The message urges the recipient to accept the publishing policy.
As per Cyberhaven, a cybersecurity firm report mentioned about the impacted firms as the attack occurred on December 24 and involved phishing a company employee to gain access to their Chrome Web Store admin credentials.
16 Chrome Extensions, including popular ones like “AI Assistant – ChatGPT and Gemini for Chrome,” “GPT 4 Summary with OpenAI,” and “Reader Mode,” were compromised, exposing sensitive user data.
Response & Recommendations:
The attackers targeted browser extension publishers with phishing campaigns to gain access to their accounts and insert malicious code.
Extensions such as “Rewards Search Automator” and “Earny – Up to 20% Cash Back” were used to exfiltrate user credentials and identity tokens, particularly from Facebook business accounts.
Malicious versions of extensions communicated with external Command-and-Control (C&C) servers, such as domains like “cyberhavenext[.]pro.”
- Cyberhaven released a legitimate update (version 24.10.5), hired Mandiant to develop an incident response plan and also notified federal law enforcement agencies for investigation.
- All users advised to revoke credentials, monitor logs, and secure extensions; investigations continue.
- As per Cyberhaven, version 24.10.4 of Chrome extension was affected, and the malicious code was active for less than a day.
- The malicious extension used two files: worker.js contacted a hardcoded C&C server to download configuration and executed HTTP calls, and content.js that collected user data from targeted websites and exfiltrated it to a malicious domain specified in the C&C payload.
