LayerX research found dozens of Chrome extensions, reaching millions of users, that legally sell or share user data under terms accepted at install. Among ad blockers, it confirmed eight reserving the right to sell or share user information, together reaching over 5.5 million users. Stands AdBlocker, with three million users, sells browsing data for market analytics, and Poper Blocker, with two million users, discloses selling identifiers, browsing activity, and behavioral profiles inferred from visited URLs. Smaller ad blockers route browsing data and even AI conversations through data brokers. The finding shows tools installed to stop tracking can themselves become data exfiltration channels, a browser extension supply chain risk static malware scanning misses.
Researchers at LayerX detailed BioShocking, an attack that manipulates AI browser agents into ignoring their safety rules by convincing them they are inside a fictional game. Using a web page with a puzzle that rewards deliberately wrong answers, the attack gets the agent to accept a false reality, after which it treats a request to open a page and copy its contents as just another step. In the demonstration, that page redirected to the victim's work GitHub repository and the agent handed over SSH credentials, treating the theft as finishing the game. None of the six AI browser agents tested flagged it as a rule violation.
TrustStrike Labs