Browser extensions can improve productivity by streamlining workflows and automating tasks. But they also pose significant security risks. By requiring access to sensitive data, such as login credentials, cookies, and session details, they can expose organizations to data breaches, malware, phishing, and other cyber threats. In this blog post, we propose browser extension security strategies that can help enterprises reap the productivity benefits of extensions without compromising security.
What is Browser Extension Security?
Browser extension security is the practice of protecting against risks introduced by malicious browser extensions. These small software programs, which are installed on web browsers, offer enhanced productivity for users. They streamline workflows, automate tasks, and enhance the browsing experience. However, their integration with browsers serves as gateways to the browser itself, introducing security concerns.
Browser extensions have access to sensitive data such as login credentials, cookies, and sessions. This means malicious extensions can access business and customer data, identities, and information that can be used for advanced attacks. Extension security risks include:
- Data Leaks – Sensitive information can be exfiltrated and exposed.
- Malicious Activities – Data can be used as a vector for malware, phishing, ransomware, or other cyber threats, compromising enterprise systems.
- Unauthorized Access – Permissions and credentials can open backdoors, allowing attackers to bypass security controls and gain access to restricted areas of the enterprise network.
To counter these risks, enterprises must adopt robust security practices to analyze, monitor, and manage browser extensions effectively. This includes rigorous vetting of extensions, continuous tracking of installed extensions to detect suspicious activities or changes to their permissions, and establishing policies for managing enterprise extensions.
What is Browser Extension Security Testing?
Browser Extension Security Testing is the process of evaluating browser extensions to ensure they do not pose security risks to an organization.
Without proper security testing, extensions can be exploited by attackers to steal credentials, manipulate web content, or even act as spyware. Testing helps uncover risks like unauthorized data access, malicious scripts, or permissions that allow extensions to track browsing activity or capture sensitive information. By regularly evaluating and monitoring browser extensions, organizations can prevent data breaches, enforce security policies, and maintain a secure browsing environment for employees.
Best Practices for Browser Extension Security
The risks of using browser extensions don’t cancel out the productivity benefits. Enterprises can still use browser extensions, if they follow the right security practices. Below is an in-depth list of recommended practices for enterprises conducting browser extension security.
- Implement a formal approval process where extensions are reviewed for known vulnerabilities before installation. This should be automated to reduce overhead, eliminate errors and support scale.
- Evaluate the permissions requested by each extension to ensure they align with its intended functionality. Reject extensions requesting excessive permissions unless a clear and documented business need exists.
- Evaluate the browser’s attributes, like when the extension was last updated, privacy policy, support site, last rating date, and more. Attributes are a tell-tale of risky extensions, before even allowing the extension to access your environment and tracking activity (see next practice).
- Monitor the behavior of installed extensions regularly, looking for unusual patterns such as large data transfers, frequent server communications, or altered browser settings.
- Deploy browser security tools capable of detecting anomalies in browser extension activity and blocking risky extensions.
- Establish alert mechanisms to notify IT teams of unexpected behaviors.
- Track updates to installed extensions and evaluate changes to their permissions or functionality.
- Maintain an inventory of approved extensions and their current versions for compliance audits.
- Provide regular training sessions to educate employees about the risks of unvetted extensions and how to recognize suspicious behavior.
- Develop and enforce enterprise extension policies that automatically restrict employees from installing risky extensions.
The Risks of Poor Browser Extension Security
Neglecting browser extension security impacts multiple facets of the business. Key browser security risks include:
1. Data Breaches
Browser extensions often require extensive permissions to access data from web pages, downloads, cookies, sessions, and more. These permissions can be used to access sensitive information like customer information, business plans, and financial records. If a malicious or compromised extension gains access to this data, it can exfiltrate it to unauthorized actors. The results can be reputational damage, costly remediation, compliance violations, and potential lawsuits.
2. Credential Theft
Some extensions require permissions to modify data or hijack sessions, allowing them to access usernames, passwords, and sensitive communications. Once stolen, these credentials can be exploited to access corporate systems, leading to unauthorized access and account takeovers. A compromised admin account could allow attackers to shut down critical systems, manipulate data, or spread malware further within the organization.
3. Enterprise Compliance Risks
Malicious browser extensions may violate strict data protection regulations like GDPR, CCPA or PCI-DSS. These laws require organizations to safeguard personal and sensitive information. If an extension misuses or leaks regulated data, the organization may face hefty fines, legal action, and loss of trust in the organization’s ability to protect data, and, consequently, to conduct adequate business.
4. Operational Disruptions
The aforementioned malicious activities can have a significant business impact. These might be fines, diverting the workforce to manage security incidents (impacting productivity), long-term implications on brand management, and even crippling system operations. Ironically, extensions that were installed for driving productivity, can result in a ripple effect of significant productivity loss.
How LayerX Enhances Browser Extension Security
LayerX is an all-in-one, agentless security platform (delivered as a browser extension) that protects enterprises against malicious browser extensions, and GenAI, Web, and DLP risks and threats without impacting the user experience.
To protect against malicious browser extensions, LayerX discovers all extensions installed in the organization, assesses their risk, and blocks or disables risky ones.
For each installed browser extension, LayerX performs risk analysis of that extension, combining both local parameters (based on the permissions requested by the extension) and global parameters (such as age, publisher, rating, etc.) to determine the risk score of that extension.
LayerX can disable or uninstall existing risky extensions, and block the installation of new ones, based on automatic risk analysis or security policies (e.g., extension name, ID, category, etc.)
The LayerX solution is deployed as a browser extension supporting all major browsers, meaning that organizations can easily deploy them without making any changes to networking or architecture, and does not interrupt user productivity or experience.
Organizations use LayerX to secure their hybrid work environments, and keep track of data and identities in SaaS environments without losing speed or effectiveness.
The LayerX enterprise-designed architecture enables seamless scalability as it doesn’t require agents or proxies and natively integrates with any browser. As a browser extension, LayerX delivers 100% coverage to any browser session, with no blind spots to its threat prevention, DLP, and secure access capabilities. In a similar manner, it ensures full visibility of every installed browser extension and user activities.
Learn more about LayerX Browser Extension Protection
