29 Chrome Extensions Caught Hijacking Affiliate Links—Your Favorite Ad Blocker is Stealing Creator Payouts

The Unmasking of 29 Malicious Extensions

A recent and alarming security alert has pierced the veneer of trust many users place in their browser add-ons. Threat researchers have uncovered a sophisticated network of malicious activity operating silently within the Chrome Web Store, masquerading as helpful utilities. This investigation culminated in the confirmation of 29 compromised Chrome extensions that share a singular, financially motivated objective: affiliate link hijacking. These extensions were designed not merely to offer a service, but to systematically divert commissions earned by legitimate content creators and publishers across the internet.

This discovery, brought to light through diligent security monitoring, reveals a significant loophole in extension vetting processes. The scale of the operation suggests a coordinated effort to exploit user trust for profit, underlining a hidden economic sabotage occurring within the daily browsing habits of millions. As initially reported by security observers, including insights shared by @glenngabe, the method employed by these extensions is deeply insidious, hiding vast financial theft behind seemingly innocuous functionality.

The Deceptive Tool: How "Amazon Ads Blocker" Operates

The initial focus of this investigation centered on an extension explicitly named "Amazon Ads Blocker." This tool marketed itself effectively to millions of shoppers: it promised to clean up the Amazon shopping experience by suppressing sponsored content and intrusive advertisements. For users annoyed by the proliferation of 'Sponsored' tags on product listings, this extension presented itself as an essential utility for a cleaner, more focused browsing session.

However, the true, primary function operating beneath this surface-level utility was far more nefarious. While the extension successfully executed its advertised function—blocking ads—it simultaneously engaged in automatic, background modification of product links. Specifically, whenever a user clicked on a legitimate Amazon product link, the extension would intercept the referral path and automatically replace the original affiliate tag with one belonging entirely to the developer, identified in initial analysis as 10xprofit-20.

This is the essence of stealth malware: performing the expected duty to maintain user trust while executing a hidden, malicious payload. The developers crafted a perfect bait-and-switch, capitalizing on the consumer desire for an uncluttered shopping interface to establish a broad network for affiliate fraud, all without the end-user’s knowledge or consent.

Mechanism of Theft: Affiliate Tag Substitution

Affiliate hijacking, in this context, is a precise act of digital interception and modification. It occurs at the point of URL rendering in the browser. When a content creator embeds a link in their blog, review site, or social media post, that link often contains their unique affiliate ID—the key that tracks sales back to them and triggers their commission payout.

The malicious extension acts as an invisible middleman. It intercepts the browser's attempt to navigate to the URL, checks if the domain is Amazon, and if so, executes a script that substitutes the creator's legitimate affiliate tag with the fraudster’s tag. The user experience remains seamless—they are directed to the correct product page—but the ensuing sale is credited to the hijacker.

The direct and devastating impact falls squarely on content creators. These individuals and businesses rely on affiliate marketing as a core revenue stream. When 29 different browser extensions are systematically rerouting thousands of potential commissions daily, the cumulative financial damage is staggering, representing not just lost revenue, but outright theft of earned payouts. The extension successfully performs its advertised task, making detection by casual observation nearly impossible, amplifying the scale of the fraud.

Financial Fallout and Erosion of Trust

The financial consequences for legitimate content creators and publishers whose referral links are being subverted are immediate and severe. An influencer who spends hours creating detailed reviews or building dedicated traffic sources suddenly finds their conversion rate dropping to zero, with no clear explanation as to why their carefully cultivated audience is no longer resulting in expected revenue. This undercuts the entire creator economy model built on transparency and referral commissions.

Furthermore, this scenario represents a significant security and privacy risk for the end-users who installed these tools. Users chose the extension based on its perceived utility (ad-blocking), unaware that they were also installing a sophisticated mechanism designed to exploit their browsing behavior for financial gain. This highlights the perennial challenge of browser extension security: functionality often masks intent.

This incident casts a long shadow over the Chrome Web Store ecosystem itself. If dozens of extensions with this level of coordinated malicious code can survive initial vetting processes and remain active long enough to siphon substantial affiliate revenue, it raises critical questions about the stringency and effectiveness of Google's security checks. How many other extensions are quietly harboring similar monetization schemes hidden within their codebases?

Protecting Your Payouts and Your Browser

The immediate response for any user utilizing browser extensions must now shift from convenience to rigorous skepticism. The first line of defense is simple: review and uninstall any extension that seems unnecessary or that hasn't been updated recently, especially those that require broad access permissions like the ability to "read and change all your data on the websites you visit."

For content creators, verifying link integrity is paramount. While difficult to monitor across every platform, creators should periodically use developer tools (or third-party link checking services) to inspect the actual HTML source code surrounding their embedded affiliate links when viewing their own site through a browser where suspicious extensions are not installed. Comparing the active URL generated on one machine versus another can expose hidden substitutions.

Finally, this situation demands heightened scrutiny from platform owners. A robust call to action must be directed at Google and the Chrome team to implement stricter, proactive identification techniques capable of detecting code injection methods, rather than simply relying on user reports after the damage is done. The digital marketplace thrives on trust; when that trust is systematically exploited by malicious add-ons, the foundation of online commerce begins to crack.

Source: Analysis derived from information shared by @glenngabe at https://x.com/glenngabe/status/2018680855279902859