• Posted by: Eng. Donya Bino
• November 25, 2025

Browser Extensions Can Be Dangerous , Don’t Ignore This

We all love browser extensions, right? They block ads, manage passwords, help with work stuff. Makes life easier. But they can be dangerous too. Not all, but some.

The problem is, some extensions can basically be turned into backdoors. Silent, quiet, no warning. They can read your data, track what you do, even do stuff in the browser you didn’t allow. And if someone is clever, they can use them for privilege escalation, basically giving themselves more access than they should have. Scary.

And it’s not just sketchy extensions you download. Even ones that look legit can get hijacked. Developers sell them, updates go bad, attackers clone a popular extension and push it out. Users install it thinking it’s fine. Nothing seems wrong. Until, it’s too late.

So, what can you do? Few things that actually help:
1. Stick to extensions you really trust. Check the developer, reviews, history, don’t just add it.
2. Watch permissions. If it wants too much access, pause. That’s your first warning.
3. Notice weird browser behavior. Slowdowns, pop-ups, redirects red flags.
4. Keep extensions and browser updated. But glance at update notes sometimes, that’s where attackers sneak in code.
5. For companies: whitelist extensions, block others. Annoying, yeah, but it stops attacks before they start.

Extensions are helpful. Most of them. But they can be used against you if you’re not careful. Awareness, careful installation, and watching for weird stuff goes a long way.