Browsers forum: Google Chrome extensions - Security question

It's pretty clear that extensions do have access to such things. If the source CODE is available then you could see what they use such access for.

Another good reason to keep such add-ons to a minimum since Norton may have no defense to information leaks via installed apps and plugins.
Bob

Thanks, Bob and John, for your helpful replies.

May I assume it would be safe to download a couple more extensions if they are from the official Google Chrome Extensions Gallery and have, for example, 30,000 or more users? Seems either Google or a programmer who can detect malicious code would have caught any untrustworthy extensions within those parameters, but I want to be on the safe side.

Here is one I want and looks perfectly safe to me. The main reason I post the link is that it has an interesting explanation about the warning message and the developer's need for this specific plugin to access data, and how far it will go. I haven't seen an explanation like it before.

https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/alelhddbbhepgpmgidjdcjakblofbmce

So what about this one?
Proxy Switchy!
Mhd Hejazi

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/caehdcpeofiiigpdhbabniblemipncjj

This is a proxy switcher. I would like to use it to toggle access to the medical library of our university.

It has remarkable 1017 ratings and 123,394 users and overall looks much more user friendly based on the pictures shown than the handful other proxy programs.
But: the user is not verified, it accesses all data on your computer (other proxy switchers only use browsing history).

I find it really interesting that almost all these proxy switcher extensions derive from china and only one is verified. They probably do that to get around internet censorship. But why access all data on my computer?

Thanks!

Extensions can be malicious.

Extensions from Google's own stores are less likely to be malicious, especially if they have the verified author logo.

If they do not have that logo then they are not verified.

I don't see that you can expect any other answer in these forums.

It is a shame that we have to even think about security for extensions or for any 3rd part software, but this is the state of the internet as we have it.

That said, this Proxy Switchy does seem to be well received as it has it's own Google Code Project ongoing here http://switchy.samabox.com/ and a well established community of bug-reporters here; http://code.google.com/p/switchy/issues/list although little activity in recent times.

This is one of those, "compare all the variables and make your mind up on what you have" decisions.

Good luck.

Mark