he popular chrome extension goes by the name Archive Poster has been deploying an in-browser digital coin miner without notifying its users. For those who don’t know about Archive Poster, it’s a mod for Tumblr that permits users to like or reblog posts from other blog’s archive.
Chrome Extension With 100,000 Users Caught Mining Cryptocurrency
The trend of mining digital coins had reached sky high. We have seen several websites caught mining digital coins using visitors CPU power. The technique to use processor power to mine digital coin is now used by malware creators as well as website owners.
Recently, a popular Google Chrome extension which had been installed more than 100,000 times was found mining digital coins by keeping their users in the dark. The popular chrome extension goes by the name Archive Poster has been deploying an in-browser digital coin miner without notifying its users.
For those who don’t know about Archive Poster, it’s a mod for Tumblr that permits users to like or reblog posts from other blog’s archive. Archive poster was found mining Monero cryptocurrency by using users CPU power.
Let's notify @Google about the #cryptojacking malware found in Chrome extension "Archive Poster"
Are you one of the 105,062 users? pic.twitter.com/quhHxZFgyf
— Bad Packets Report (@bad_packets) December 29, 2017
According to the reports from Bleeping Computer, the extension was found using Coinhive miner around the start of December 2017. However, the Archive Poster extension was found nowhere in Chrome web store. There might be possibilities that Google has decided to remove the extension.
According to the reports from PCMag, the developers of extension said in an email “An old team member who was responsible for updating the extension had his Google account compromised. Somehow the extension was hijacked to another Google account.” They have also released a new version of the extension named “[Safe] Archive Poster.”
If you’re also running the rogue extension, then you need to delete from your Chrome web browser right now. So, what do you think about this? Share your views in the comment box below.
