TEL AVIV, Israel, May, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Everybody uses browser extensions at home and at work, but can you always trust that ad blocker or coupon finder not to steal your identity or logins? Sadly, the answer is often no.
Malicious browser extensions are the most underrated identity security threats to both individuals and enterprises. Just in the past six months, these malicious browsers have led to multiple breaches and vulnerabilities that exposed nearly ten million users worldwide to identity risks and data theft, and have even prompted the FBI to issue warnings against compromised extensions.
So, who can you trust? The answer is complicated because of the way extensions can be created, co-opted by bad actors and broadly re-shared. The problem, however, is that getting full information and assessing the risk of each extension is out of reach for most users.
Stores only do a superficial job of vetting extensions. They may do simple verifications to check for obvious red flags, but it’s not part of their workflow to investigate deeper indicators of suspicious or malicious behavior.
ExtensionPedia, a one-stop, comprehensive resource evaluating the security of more than 200,000 browser extensions, announced today by LayerX, exactly addresses this challenge. For the first time, individuals and businesses can easily access extension risk analyses to distinguish between safe, risky and malicious tools.
Offered online as a public service, individuals and enterprises can find detailed risk assessments and scores of extensions they are considering for Chrome, Edge and Firefox before they install them, and a knowledge center providing guidance on protecting against malicious browser extensions.
“While browser extensions are often considered harmless, in practice they are frequently granted extensive access permissions to users’ identity information and data, leading hackers to use them as an attack channel for credential theft, account takeover and data theft,” said Or Eshed, co-founder and CEO of LayerX.
“When someone installs a browser extension – either for personal or work – users and their organizations have no idea what permissions each extension has, how reputable the extension author is and the risk profile of the extension. Our Browser Extension Risk Database and Knowledge Center for the first time helps get the information individuals and enterprises to protect themselves,” he said.
About the Browser Extension Risk Database and Knowledge Center
The new ExtensionPedia is extremely effective because it allows anyone to research any extension, view its risk assessment, and take measures to secure themselves against risky extensions. Assessments are based on anonymous data garnered from millions of sessions using the LayerX platform, a user-centric extension designed to protect identities directly in the browser, where most modern identity threats occur.
Key features benefit individuals and enterprises, including:
- Data on over 200,000 extensions across Chrome, Edge, and Firefox extension stores
- Accessible from both within the LayerX management console, as well as online for any user
- Detailed scoring for parameters like the Permission Scope of the extension and Reputation Risk
- A single, unified and holistic risk score that includes all risk parameters and factors for each extension
- Full data on the extension, details, publisher and more
- Resources, articles and guides on browser extension security and how to protect against malicious extensions
ExtensionPedia helps individuals and enterprises to protect themselves by:
- Searching for information about individual extensions by their name or extension ID
- Exploring browser extension categories such as GenAI, VPN extensions, password managers and more
- Identifying risky extensions by name or category
- Providing a single, uniform, high-level risk score for easy analysis and comparison
- Presenting granular breakdowns of permissions and reputation risks
- Gathering resources on extension risks and how to protect against them
Experience firsthand the benefits of the LayerX ExtensionPedia and protect your organization or yourself. Or learn more about LayerX Security – The Enterprise Browser Extension online.
About LayerX
LayerX Security offers an all-in-one, agentless security platform that protects enterprises against the most critical risks and threats of the modern web, including GenAI data leakage, SaaS risks, identity threats, web vulnerabilities, DLP and more. LayerX protects organizations against risky browser extensions with complete visibility to all extensions installed in the organization, detailed risk classification of each extension, and adaptive risk-based enforcement options. LayerX is deployed as an enterprise browser extension that integrates with any browser and provides organizations with full last-mile visibility and enforcement without disrupting the user experience. Enterprises use LayerX to secure their hybrid workforce in a SaaS-first world. For more information, visit the LayerX website at https://www.layerxsecurity.com.
Media Contact
Montner Tech PR
Deb Montner
dmontner@montner.com
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