Quote:Twenty-eight popular extensions for Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge browsers may contain malware and likely should be uninstalled by the more than 3 million people that already have downloaded them, security researchers said Thursday.
 
Extensions for the browsers that potentially could pose a security threat include Video Downloader for Facebook, Vimeo Video Downloader, Instagram Story Downloader, VK Unblock, as well as others in use for the two popular browsers, according to research from Avast Threat Intelligence.
 
Download numbers from the browser store show that several million people worldwide currently may be using the extensions, researchers said. Moreover, while Avast Threat Intelligence began investigating the threat in November, it may have gone unnoticed for years. Reviews on the Chrome Web Store show evidence of this, as they mention link hijacking from as far back as December 2018, researchers noted.

Avast Threat Intelligence discovered the malware after following up on research by Czech researcher Edvard Rejthar at CZ.NIC, who first identified the threat originating in browser extensions on his system, Avast senior writer Emma McGowan wrote in a blog post published Thursday.