Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Effective Detection Of Vulnerable And Malicious Browser Extensions, Hossain Shahriar, Komminist Weldemariam, Mohammad Zulkernine, Thibaud Lutellier

Faculty and Research Publications

Unsafely coded browser extensions can compromise the security of a browser, making them attractive targets for attackers as a primary vehicle for conducting cyber-attacks. Among others, the three factors making vulnerable extensions a high-risk security threat for browsers include: i) the wide popularity of browser extensions, ii) the similarity of browser extensions with web applications, and iii) the high privilege of browser extension scripts. Furthermore, mechanisms that specifically target to mitigate browser extension-related attacks have received less attention as opposed to solutions that have been deployed for common web security problems (such as SQL injection, XSS, logic flaws, client-side vulnerabilities, …