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I opened Chrome this morning and discovered the red AdBlock icon near the omnibox wasn't there. I opened the Extension list and discovered two extensions I'd never seen before, and all the others deleted (Herpderp youtube, adblock, etc.)

In a panic I deleted the unrecognized ones that had (IMO) obvious malware names, but in my haste I dind't write them down or anything. (I guess I'm not that super of a user :( ) So, I'm not sure which they were, but I certainly didn't install them. If they appear again, I'll edit this post with their names.

How can extensions be installed without my permission or knowledge? And, how can I prevent that from happening?

EDIT: That was fast. These two have been installed: DOOwNSaave 5.2 and FindBeSStDeAl. Where can they come from?

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  • You might want to provide information about what system you are running this on - you may have an infection working sideways to put it's crap into Chrome, rather than something you are getting "in" Chrome.
    – Ecnerwal
    Jan 1, 2014 at 22:05

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Extensions can be installed in to web browsers by other software on your machine, although most browsers (I believe Chrome included) will inform you when this happens. You've got either a malware issue or an adware issue (potentially dropped by the installer of some free software, you know the type). You can try running a standard virus scanner on your machine (Microsoft Security Essentials, Avast, what have you) but be aware that any antivirus running on the compromised machine may also be compromised - clever malware will prevent the scan being effective. Your best bet is to run some type of offline scanner (Kaspersky produces a free boot disk, for example) on the machine.

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  • Thanks! I didn't even guess that something on my computer could mess with chrome. I cleaned out some stuff with malwarebytes and the problem hasn't resurfaced.
    – whiterook6
    Jan 6, 2014 at 17:13

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