Oh Dear! popular Chrome extension Better History has been caught hijacking user browsers and redirected them to advertised websites pre-set by extension (new) owner. The extension developer has sold the extension two months back to a company, which recently updated the extension on the store to version 3.9.8 with a new shady permission: ‘Read and change data all your data on the websites you visit’.
Where as that extension hosted on Gihub and maintained by original author has version number 3.9.5 without that shady permission. Considering the extension was popular and they trust the developer, users haven’t worried about the permission they’ve granted, later they realized when the extension redirects them through lnkr.us service to company set destination when they click on http link.
According to a user reported on reddit, the updated extension with a malicious script installs proxy extension on user’s browser and redirects chrome traffic to the highest bidder.
Affected users after reporting fraud about the extension, Google has removed the extension from the Web Store. it no longer available to access. If you’ve installed this extension and using, immediately remove it.
extension is still in the store
Yep! we know that and its surprising and we’re not sure how this extension is behaving currently. Better to stay away from it.