Tuesday, May 13, 2025
HomeSecurity NewsDroidclub Botnet via Malicious Chrome Extensions That Affect More Than Half a...

Droidclub Botnet via Malicious Chrome Extensions That Affect More Than Half a Million Users

Published on

SIEM as a Service

Follow Us on Google News

Security researchers from Trend Micro detected a new botnet dubbed Droidclub distributed through malicious chrome extensions. Attackers used malvertising and social engineering methods to display fake messages that trick’s users into installing the malicious extensions.

More than 423,992 users have been affected with the bot and a total of 89 extensions removed from chrome web store. With Its persistence nature, it makes more difficult for users in Uninstalling or reporting the extension.

Droidclub Execution Flow

It injects ads and cryptocurrency mining scripts to every page the user visiting and it can also modify the contents of the websites, ads by matching the IFRAME sizes.

“Droidclub also abuses legitimate session replay libraries to violate the user’s privacy. These libraries are meant to be used to replay a user’s visit to a website, so that the site owner can see what the user saw, and what he entered into the machine, among other things”, researchers said.
- Advertisement - Google News
Droidclub

Botnet distributed via malvertising and social engineering methods, if the extension installed it checks with C&C server and installs additional configuration codes.

The infected browser pops up and displays ads periodically, and the frequency of displaying ads controlled by C&C server. Trend Micro published a technical analysis report on Botner behavior.

Also Read Four Chrome Extensions Impacted More than Half a Million Users

It also capable of injecting Javascript library from Yandex Metrica of pages visited by users and modifies certain external links based on the keywords. The malicious extensions reported to Google by Trend Micro and they are disabled now.

“The combination of the extension and the library can steal data entered into forms such as names, credit card numbers, CVV numbers, email addresses, and phone numbers. The library does not capture passwords by design, so these are not stolen by the threat actors”, researchers said.

Botnet Nature and Mitigation – Malicious Chrome Extensions

It is difficult to remove and report the malicious chrome extensions. It blocks the users in reporting the extension by checkings the URL and redirects to extension page.

If users try to uninstall the malicious chrome extensions chrome://extensions/ it redirects to a fake page to believe it is removed, but it remains in the system.

By using Ad blockers and script blockers that can block malicious sites from displaying ads. System administrators can define chrome policies to avoid installing these extensions.

Gurubaran
Gurubaran
Gurubaran is a co-founder of Cyber Security News and GBHackers On Security. He has 10+ years of experience as a Security Consultant, Editor, and Analyst in cybersecurity, technology, and communications.

Latest articles

Lumma Stealer Upgraded with PowerShell Tools and Advanced Evasion Techniques

Sophos Managed Detection and Response (MDR) in September 2024, the notorious Lumma Stealer malware...

New Noodlophile Malware Spreads Through Fake AI Video Generation Platforms

Cybercriminals have unleashed a new malware campaign using fake AI video generation platforms as...

Kimsuky Hacker Group Deploys New Phishing Techniques and Malware Campaigns

The North Korean state-sponsored Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) group Kimsuky, also known as “Black...

APT37 Hackers Use Weaponized LNK Files and Dropbox for Command-and-Control Operations

The North Korean state-sponsored hacking group APT37, also known as ScarCruft, launched a spear...

Resilience at Scale

Why Application Security is Non-Negotiable

The resilience of your digital infrastructure directly impacts your ability to scale. And yet, application security remains a critical weak link for most organizations.

Application Security is no longer just a defensive play—it’s the cornerstone of cyber resilience and sustainable growth. In this webinar, Karthik Krishnamoorthy (CTO of Indusface) and Phani Deepak Akella (VP of Marketing – Indusface), will share how AI-powered application security can help organizations build resilience by

Discussion points


Protecting at internet scale using AI and behavioral-based DDoS & bot mitigation.
Autonomously discovering external assets and remediating vulnerabilities within 72 hours, enabling secure, confident scaling.
Ensuring 100% application availability through platforms architected for failure resilience.
Eliminating silos with real-time correlation between attack surface and active threats for rapid, accurate mitigation

More like this

Phishing Campaign Uses Blob URLs to Bypass Email Security and Avoid Detection

Cybersecurity researchers at Cofense Intelligence have identified a sophisticated phishing tactic leveraging Blob URIs...

UK Government to Shift Away from Passwords in New Security Move

UK government has unveiled plans to implement passkey technology across its digital services later...

New Spam Campaign Leverages Remote Monitoring Tools to Exploit Organizations

A sophisticated spam campaign targeting Portuguese-speaking users in Brazil has been uncovered by Cisco...