All news with #browser security tag

🔒 Enterprise security must stop reflexively blocking tools and start governing browser sessions. The article argues that legacy controls—kernel‑hooking agents, SSL inspection and URL blocks—create a "Workaround Economy" where users move sensitive data to unmanaged apps and extensions. It urges a shift to session‑level governance with prompt‑level DLP, extension risk scoring, and agentless clipboard/upload controls to enable productivity while reducing blind spots.

🔒 Work has shifted into the browser, creating a broad visibility and control gap as employees access SaaS, collaborate with GenAI and interact across unmanaged devices. Legacy perimeter and endpoint tools cannot see last-mile actions such as sensitive uploads to unsanctioned models, malicious extensions, or agentic browser behaviors that reassemble malware in memory. Prisma Browser restores control with context-aware policies, embedded Enterprise DLP, continuous page inspection and governance for both human and agent activity, enabling safe AI use without blocking innovation.

🔒 Cloudflare is making advanced client-side protections self-serve and offering domain-based threat intelligence free across all Client-Side Security customers. The Client-Side Security Advanced bundle brings machine learning and an LLM-backed second opinion to detect malicious JavaScript and drastically reduce false positives. It relies on browser reporting like CSP and requires only that traffic be proxied through Cloudflare, so there is zero latency impact to applications. These tools are intended to help organizations of all sizes detect skimming, supply-chain compromises, and sophisticated browser-side attacks.

🛡️ Security researchers have warned of malicious Chrome extensions that silently monitor and exfiltrate users' AI chat content. According to Expel, extensions watch open tabs and capture prompts and responses via API interception or DOM scraping before sending the data to external servers. Attackers either impersonate popular tools or convert legitimate extensions into malicious ones after building a user base. Organisations are urged to block unvetted AI extensions and centrally manage and audit extension use.

🛡️ Firefox 149 introduces a free built-in VPN that provides signed-in users with up to 50 GB of browser-only monthly traffic via a secure proxy. The feature can be toggled globally or enabled on up to five specific sites to save data, while certain sites and services are excluded to avoid sign-in and reconnection issues. Mozilla says it will collect only limited technical and interaction data to monitor performance, and routing servers are U.S.-based. Rollout begins in the US, UK, Germany and France; the update also adds Split View and fixes 46 security vulnerabilities.

🔒 Chrome Enterprise outlines five enhancements aimed at reinforcing browser security for organizations, addressing modern risks from session theft to malware-driven credential theft. Highlights include Device Bound Session Credentials to prevent session hijacking, cache encryption to protect data at rest, and App-bound encryption to block unauthorized apps from reading browser-stored secrets. Administrators also get tighter download controls and deeper integrations with partners such as Citrix and Okta to improve access decisions and incident response.

🔐 Prisma Browser for Business delivers a secure, browser-first workspace tailored to small businesses, combining enterprise-grade threat detection with a simplified admin experience. Built on Chromium and powered by Palo Alto Networks' Precision AI, it inspects webpages and extensions in real time to block AI-enabled phishing, browser-delivered malware, and risky extensions. The browser adds AI-aware controls to prevent sensitive data from being pasted into unauthorized GenAI tools and offers one-click SSO onboarding, preconfigured policies, and a 30-day no-contract trial.

🔐 Researchers have identified a new infostealer called VoidStealer that bypasses Chrome's Application-Bound Encryption (ABE) to exfiltrate stored passwords, cookies, and tokens. Unlike prior ABE bypasses that relied on code injection or elevated privileges, VoidStealer attaches as a debugger and uses hardware breakpoints to capture the v20_master-key at the precise moment it appears in plaintext. The malware can fall back to injection-based methods but prioritizes the stealthy debugger technique. Defenders should monitor for debugger attachments, unexpected memory reads, and anomalous Chrome process activity.

🔒 Researchers have dismantled the ShieldGuard crypto scam after Okta Threat Intelligence flagged the malicious browser extension in an advisory on March 17. Marketed as a wallet security tool with social promotion and token "airdrop" incentives, the extension instead harvested wallet addresses, scraped full HTML content after logins and tracked users across sessions. It used obfuscation and a custom JavaScript interpreter to evade Chrome protections and supported remote command-and-control execution. Partners removed the extension from the Chrome Web Store, disabled backend infrastructure, took down domains and blocked sign-in functionality; users are advised to limit plugins, verify sources and treat free-token offers with caution.

🔍 Anthropic reported discovering 22 new vulnerabilities in the Firefox browser using Claude Opus 4.6 during a two-week assessment in January 2026. Fourteen issues were rated high, seven moderate and one low, and most were patched in Firefox 148. The model detected a JavaScript use-after-free bug in about 20 minutes, which researchers validated in a virtualized environment. When tasked to produce exploits the model succeeded only twice after many attempts and roughly $4,000 in API spend, underscoring that discovery is cheaper than reliable exploitation.

🛡️ The 2026 State of Browser Security Report from Keep Aware warns that modern browsers—now hosting embedded AI copilots and generative tools—have become the primary execution layer for enterprise work and the largest emerging security gap. The study finds broad adoption of AI web tools, frequent uploads of internal and regulated data, and that traditional DLP and network controls fail to inspect typed inputs, pasted content, and in-session file uploads. It highlights phishing, malicious extensions, and social engineering as leading browser attack vectors and urges organizations to adopt browser-specific visibility, continuous extension governance, and account-level controls for AI usage.

🔁 With the release of Chrome 153 on September 8, Google will move from a four-week to a two-week release cadence for both beta and stable channels on Desktop, Android, and iOS. Dev and Canary channels remain on their current schedules while an eight-week Extended Stable branch will be preserved for enterprise customers. Google says smaller, more frequent milestones will reduce disruption and simplify post-release debugging. Users can expect more frequent feature rollouts and occasional restart prompts, and weekly security updates will continue under the August 2023 model.

🛡 Unit 42 discovered CVE-2026-0628, a high-severity flaw in Chrome's new Gemini Live panel that allowed extensions with only declarativeNetRequest permissions to inject JavaScript into the privileged panel context. That injection could escalate extension privileges to access camera and microphone, read local files, take screenshots and render phishing content inside a trusted browser UI. Google was notified on 2025-10-23 and issued a patch in early January 2026. Palo Alto Networks recommends mitigations such as Prisma Browser and related protections.

⚠️The QuickLens Chrome extension was removed from the Chrome Web Store after a malicious update (v5.8) was pushed that added info‑stealing and ClickFix attack functionality. Security researchers found the extension stripped security headers, added powerful permissions, and contacted a command‑and‑control server to fetch and run payloads on every page. A fake Google Update prompt led to malware that targeted Windows and attempted to steal browser credentials and cryptocurrency seed phrases. Google has disabled the extension; affected users should remove it, scan devices, reset passwords, and move funds from compromised wallets.

🔐Cloudflare describes a comprehensive redesign of its Turnstile widget and full-page Challenge Pages, interfaces that are served billions of times per day. After a detailed audit and international user testing, the team consolidated inconsistent error states into a single information architecture and simplified messaging to reduce user friction. The refresh emphasizes AAA accessibility (WCAG 2.2 AAA), clearer in-widget troubleshooting, consistent localization across 40+ languages, and subtle visual cues that lower abandonment without weakening security.

🔍 A security researcher using the pseudonym Q Continuum discovered 287 Chrome extensions that send users' browsing history and related metadata to remote servers. The investigator ran an automated pipeline that launched Chrome in Docker, installed extensions, visited test sites, and captured outgoing traffic to reveal risky behavior across VPNs, proxy tools, coupon and PDF add‑ons, and browser utilities. Many extensions request broad cross‑site host permissions and transmit data in obfuscated or encrypted formats (Base64, ROT47, LZ‑String, even AES‑256 wrapped in RSA‑OAEP), which makes detection harder and can enable corporate espionage or credential harvesting when cookies are included.

🔍 An estimated 37 million global installs of Chrome extensions have been found transmitting users’ browsing histories to external servers. Independent researcher 'Q Continuum' identified 287 extensions that sent data closely matching visited URLs during automated simulated browsing. Flagged add-ons spanned VPNs, productivity tools, shopping/coupon helpers and browser utilities, and many obfuscated outbound payloads using base64, ROT47, compression or strong encryption. The researcher warned such exfiltration could expose internal corporate URLs and, where cookies or session data are accessible, enable credential harvesting.

⚠️ Researchers at LayerX uncovered a campaign of 30 malicious Chrome extensions, installed by more than 300,000 users, that masquerade as AI assistants while exfiltrating credentials, email content, and browsing data. The add-ons render remote content in full-screen iframes from a single domain (tapnetic.pro), letting operators change behavior without store updates. Fifteen extensions specifically inject into Gmail, reading visible thread text (including drafts) and sending it off-device, and several implement voice transcription via the Web Speech API. Users should review LayerX indicators of compromise and reset passwords if they suspect exposure.

🔍 Most enterprise work now takes place in the browser, yet security architectures still center on endpoints, email, and network layers. Keep Aware calls this mismatch a "safe haven" that attackers exploit with user-driven flows that leave little forensic evidence. Common techniques include click‑prompt social engineering, malicious extensions, man‑in‑the‑browser variants, and HTML smuggling — all of which can appear legitimate to EDR, email security, or SASE. Without browser-level visibility, teams struggle to prevent, reconstruct, or learn from these incidents.

🔒 Zscaler has acquired Singapore-based SquareX to extend browser detection and response (BDR) capabilities into standard web browsers across managed and unmanaged devices. The move enables Zscaler to deliver Zero Trust Exchange controls via lightweight extensions rather than requiring a separate enterprise browser. SquareX's runtime extension enforces session-specific controls such as browser-native DLP, dynamic content isolation, real-time behaviour monitoring, clipboard protections and AI prompt safeguards, integrating with Zscaler policy enforcement to reduce reliance on legacy VPN/VDI.