Mozilla begins screening Firefox extensions for crypto scams

Though the crypto mining increase has largely handed, cryptocurrency scams nonetheless stay on the market. Since crypto wallets usually come within the type of an online browser extension, so do crypto scams—and Mozilla has noticed a whole lot of them attempting to get onto the official repository of Firefox extensions. Now, a brand new device that routinely scans for them exists.

So sayeth a brand new Mozilla weblog publish, noticed by BleepingComputer. Precisely how the automated system determines {that a} newly-posted extension is suspicious isn’t elucidated… however I suppose spelling it out would simply give scammers a simple strategy to circumvent it. If the system spots sufficient pink flags, it holds the extension for human overview, after which the extension might be authorised or tossed out.

In the intervening time, the system is barely utilized to “pockets” Firefox extensions, although I’ve to imagine there are different programs in place for extra common threats. Firefox is among the final main browsers that also isn’t based mostly on the open-source Chromium, the foundation venture for Google Chrome and Microsoft’s Edge, so extension builders have already got to focus on it narrowly.

In fact, this method solely protects customers who’re going via Mozilla’s official repository of Firefox extensions at addons.mozilla.org. Hackers and scammers can—and sometimes do—entice unwary customers to obtain extensions from third-party websites. Downloading from official sources (just like the Chrome Internet Retailer for Chromium-based browsers) doesn’t routinely defend you, but it surely’s typically a safer wager than downloading and putting in extensions from elsewhere.