All news with #browser security tag

🔒 The article argues that the browser is now the primary interface for enterprise GenAI and outlines a practical security model combining policy, isolation, and precision data controls. It recommends categorizing GenAI services into sanctioned and public tools, enforcing SSO for corporate identities, and preventing cross‑account leakage. The piece highlights the risks of prompt copy/paste, file uploads, and extensions, and advises per‑site/session controls, telemetry, and a pragmatic 30‑day Secure Enterprise Browser (SEB) rollout to enable safe, productive use.

🔒 Researchers at Push Security describe ConsentFix, a browser-only evolution of the ClickFix phishing technique that captures OAuth tokens for Microsoft logins. The attack leverages legitimate but compromised sites and a fake Cloudflare-style CAPTCHA to trick victims into copying and pasting a URL containing an OAuth token, which yields account access via Azure CLI without a password or MFA. Push Security warns the method avoids many endpoint and authentication defenses and is difficult to detect; mitigation requires tightened consent governance, enhanced monitoring, and browser-based protections.

🤖 Brave has begun testing an agentic AI browsing mode that uses its privacy-focused assistant Leo to perform autonomous tasks like web research, product comparison, promo-code discovery, and news summarization. The feature is currently available in Brave Nightly and is disabled by default. Brave isolates the agent in a separate profile without access to cookies, logins, or sensitive data and adds restrictions plus an alignment checker to mitigate prompt-injection and other risks.

🔒 Palo Alto Networks announces that Prisma Browser has been named the best-positioned market leader in the Frost Radar: Zero Trust Browser Security (ZTBS), 2025 report, recognized for both innovation and growth. The vendor frames the browser as the enterprise 'OS' where 85% of work occurs and 95% of security incidents originate, emphasizing the urgent need for native browser defenses. Powered by Precision AI, Cloud-Delivered Security Services and embedded Enterprise DLP, Prisma Browser inspects live, fully rendered content to detect evasive AI-driven phishing, zero-day browser exploits and malicious extensions. Combined with Advanced WildFire, URL Filtering and runtime extension security, the solution delivers last-mile protection without disrupting user workflows.

🔒 The article argues that the browser must be the primary enforcement point for enterprise zero trust, replacing outdated perimeter assumptions with per-request, context-aware controls. It synthesizes NIST SP 800-207 and 800-207A plus CISA guidance to describe identity-first access, least-privilege entitlements, continuous verification, phishing-resistant MFA (FIDO2/WebAuthn), device posture gating and remote browser isolation. Practical recommendations include SSO with short-lived tokens, SCIM-driven provisioning, ZTNA access proxies and governance-as-code to automate policy and reduce exposure.

🛡️Researchers at Koi Security uncovered a multi-year campaign by an actor dubbed ShadyPanda that abused trusted Chrome and Edge extensions to harvest browsing data, manipulate search results and traffic, and install a backdoor. The group amassed roughly 4.3 million infected browser instances by publishing legitimate-looking add-ons and later pushing malicious updates. Although many extensions have been removed from stores, infected browsers remain at risk because extensions auto-update and marketplaces generally review only at submission.

🛡️ Unit 42’s Browser Defense Playbook warns that modern work happens primarily in the browser—about 85% of daily tasks—and that attackers increasingly exploit that centrality with phishing, malicious extensions, drive-by downloads and session hijacks. The guide identifies common failures such as unmanaged extensions, lax policies and blind spots in encrypted traffic. It recommends extending zero trust to the browser with strong MFA, conditional access, continuous monitoring and vetted extension allow lists, and points to Prisma Browser for agentless inspection and DLP.

🔍 Koi Security revealed a long-running surveillance campaign by an actor it calls 'ShadyPanda' that abused legitimate-seeming Chrome and Edge extensions to harvest browsing data, hijack search results, and deploy a backdoor enabling remote code execution. The group built trust by publishing useful extensions (including Clean Master) and then silently pushed malicious updates that bypassed marketplace re-approval. With an estimated 4.3 million infected browser instances, enterprises should treat browser extensions as high-risk assets and urgently audit and remediate add-ons on corporate and employee devices.

🛡️ A seven-year browser extension campaign attributed to the actor known as ShadyPanda has infected 4.3 million Chrome and Edge users by operating legitimately for years and then pushing malicious updates. A Koi Security report describes a remote code execution backdoor that affected roughly 300,000 users across five extensions, including Clean Master, and a parallel spyware push via Edge extensions such as WeTab. Malicious updates enabled hourly downloads of arbitrary JavaScript, extensive logging of site visits, exfiltration of encrypted browsing histories, and comprehensive browser fingerprinting.

🔒 A threat actor tracked as ShadyPanda operated a seven-year browser-extension campaign that amassed over 4.3 million installs by converting popular add-ons into data-stealing spyware. Koi Security reports that five extensions were modified in mid-2024 to run hourly remote code execution, download arbitrary JavaScript, and exfiltrate encrypted browsing histories and full browser fingerprints. Notable victims include Clean Master — once verified by Google — and WeTab, which still had millions of installs. Users should remove affected extensions and rotate credentials immediately while marketplaces review post-approval update controls.

⚠️ Koi Security uncovered the long-running "ShadyPanda" operation that amassed over 4.3 million installs of Chrome and Edge browser extensions, many of which transitioned from legitimate tools to spyware. The campaign, active since 2018, progressed through phases—starting with affiliate-fraud injections, moving to search hijacking, and culminating in a remote backdoor capable of executing arbitrary JavaScript. Google has removed numerous extensions from the Chrome Web Store, but several high-install Edge add-ons remain available and continue to collect browsing data, keystrokes, cookies, and device fingerprints. Users are advised to remove suspect extensions immediately and reset account passwords.

🚨 The emergence of agentic AI browsers converts the browser from a passive viewer into an autonomous digital agent that can act on users' behalf. To perform tasks—booking travel, filling forms, executing payments—these agents must hold session cookies, saved credentials, and payment data, creating an unprecedented attack surface. The piece cites OpenAI's ChatGPT Atlas as an example and warns that prompt injection and the resulting authenticated exfiltration can bypass conventional MFA and network controls. Recommended mitigations include auditing endpoints for shadow AI browsers, enforcing allow/block lists for sensitive resources, and augmenting native protections with third-party browser security and anti-phishing layers.

⚠️ Security firm SquareX disclosed a previously undocumented MCP API inside the AI browser Comet that enables embedded extensions to execute arbitrary commands and launch applications — capabilities mainstream browsers normally block. The API can be triggered covertly from pages such as perplexity.ai, creating an execution channel exploitable via compromised extensions, XSS, MITM, or phishing. SquareX highlights that the analytics and agentic extensions are hidden and cannot be uninstalled, leaving devices exposed by default.

🔒 This article by Stan Kaminsky reviews Athanasios Giatsos’ Security Analyst Summit 2025 talk and explains why malicious browser extensions are a major blind spot for organizations. It outlines how extensions can access cookies, local storage, proxy settings, clipboard and screen capture, enabling session and account theft, espionage, ad fraud and crypto theft, and why Manifest V3 reduces but does not eliminate risk. Practical controls described include formal extension policies and allowlists, disabling developer mode, version pinning and testing of updates, EDR and SIEM-based monitoring, and the use of specialized vetting tools for deeper analysis.

⚠️ Security researchers disclosed a novel attack called AI sidebar spoofing that allows malicious browser extensions to place counterfeit in‑page AI assistants that visually mimic legitimate sidebars. Demonstrated against Comet and confirmed for Atlas, the extension injects JavaScript, forwards queries to a real LLM when requested, and selectively alters replies to inject phishing links, malicious OAuth prompts, or harmful terminal commands. Users who install extensions without scrutiny face a tangible risk.

🔒 Mozilla has rolled out enhanced anti-fingerprinting protections in Firefox 145, initially active in Private Browsing and Enhanced Tracking Protection (ETP) Strict mode. Phase 2 measures add targeted noise to background image reads, restrict reported fonts to standard OS sets with select language exceptions, coarsen touch reporting, report screen height minus 48 pixels, and always report two processor cores. After testing these changes will be enabled by default; users can disable them per-site for compatibility. The release also removes the 32-bit Linux build.

🛡️ The Browser Security Report 2025 warns that enterprise risk is consolidating in the user's browser, where identity, SaaS, and GenAI exposures converge. The research shows widespread unmanaged GenAI usage and paste-based exfiltration, extensions acting as an embedded supply chain, and a high volume of logins occurring outside SSO. Legacy controls like DLP, EDR, and SSE are described as operating one layer too low. The report recommends adopting session-native, browser-level controls to restore visibility and enforce policy without disrupting users.

🔒 Microsoft will remove Defender Application Guard for Office (MDAG) from supported Office builds beginning with version 2602 in early February 2026 and expects full removal with version 2612 by mid‑2027. Files that previously opened in Application Guard will open in Protected View instead. Microsoft recommends enabling Defender for Endpoint ASR rules and Windows Defender Application Control to preserve protections; no admin action is required to trigger the removal.

🔒 Modern browsers include sandboxing, but attackers exploit expected behaviors to bypass protections. A new on-demand webinar from Keep Aware outlines the top three browser-layer threats—credential theft, malicious extensions, and lateral movement—and explains why tools like CASBs, SWGs, and EDRs often miss these attacks. It shows how real-time browser visibility, policy enforcement, and behavioral detection extend protection into everyday user activity. The session is aimed at CISOs and security leaders seeking practical steps to close this blind spot.

⚠️ Security researcher Jose Pino disclosed "Brash", a severe flaw in the Blink rendering engine that can crash many Chromium-based browsers within 15–60 seconds via a single malicious URL. The root cause is missing rate limiting on the document.title API, enabling attackers to inject millions of DOM mutations per second and saturate the browser UI thread. Pino describes a three-phase technique — hash generation, burst injection, and UI-thread saturation — and warns the code can be time-triggered to act like a logic bomb. Affected products include Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Brave, Opera, Vivaldi, Arc, Dia, and some AI browser interfaces; Firefox and Safari are not vulnerable.