Fake ChatGPT extensions want to steal your Facebook account

That Chrome extension you downloaded to add ChatGPT integration to Google outcomes might not be the reputable one—and it may trigger you to lose entry to your Facebook account. 

Until earlier at present, a malware copy of the “ChatGPT for Google” extension that stole Facebook session cookies may very well be discovered within the Chrome Web Store, permitting hackers to infiltrate accounts and lock customers out. Discovered by safety agency Guardio Labs and reported by BleepingComputer, the false extension leveraged the Chrome Extension API to sniff out lively Facebook cookies and despatched the pilfered information to the attacker’s server. Hackers then logged into Facebook, modified the account credentials, and transformed profiles to that of a false persona named “Lily Collins.” These zombie accounts have been used to unfold malicious promoting and extremist propaganda.

Most individuals uncovered to this pretend add-on seemingly downloaded it by means of a sponsored commercial in Google searches for “Chat GPT 4,” mirroring comparable assaults on Radeon and Bitwarden customers earlier this yr. If you’re a sufferer of this ploy, you gained’t essentially discover something amiss, both. Guardio Labs says that as a result of the malicious Chrome extension leans on the reputable add-on’s code, ChatGPT integration for Google search outcomes nonetheless works.

To have been uncovered to the pretend extension, customers would have downloaded it from the Chrome Web Store between February 14 and March 22. (The extension has since been faraway from the Google Chrome Store.) If you discovered the hyperlink through Google search, the malicious Google textual content commercials started on March 14. 

If you’ve got ChatGPT for Google put in on your PC and want to test if it’s legit, click on on the puzzle-piece icon to the suitable of Chrome’s deal with bar, then on Manage Extensions. Click on the Details button for the extension, then View in Chrome Web Store. The itemizing for the official extension will present “chatgpt4google.com” because the verified developer, and over 1,000,000 customers. Anything else is a pretend.

Unfortunately, this pretend extension shouldn’t be the primary to goal these interested by ChatGPT—Guardio Labs beforehand detected an earlier model of this malicious extension, which used Facebook advertising to get its hooks into Chrome customers. Given how dominant ChatGPT will stay in common discourse, and the sadly widespread prevalence of unhealthy Google commercials, anticipate extra clones to pop up. To shield your self, watch out about which hyperlinks you click on on in Google search outcomes, set up antivirus software program, and think about putting in an ad-blocker like uBlock Origin, too.

Author: Alaina Yee, Senior Editor