GuardExt

A Chrome extension that scans your installed browser extensions and flags potential security risks.

Features

• Permission analysis — Detects dangerous and sensitive permissions (webRequestBlocking, debugger, cookies, clipboardRead, etc.) and broad host access patterns (<all_urls>, *://*/*).
• Install type checks — Flags sideloaded and developer-mode extensions that weren't installed from the Chrome Web Store.
• Malicious ID blocklist — Cross-references each extension against a bundled list of known malicious extension IDs. Matches are tagged with a BLOCKLISTED badge and the specific reason.
• Risk scoring — Each extension receives a composite score and is categorized as Safe, Warning, or Danger.
• Auto-updating blocklist — A GitHub Actions workflow publishes malicious_ids.json to GitHub Pages on every push to main, so the extension can fetch the latest blocklist at scan time with a local fallback.

Project Structure

guardext/
├── manifest.json
├── background/
│   └── background.js             # Service worker: risk analysis & blocklist loading
├── popup/
│   ├── popup.html                # Popup UI
│   ├── popup.js                  # Scan trigger, results rendering
│   └── popup.css                 # Dark-themed styles
├── data/
│   └── malicious_ids.json        # Known malicious extension ID blocklist
└── icons

Installation

1. DL from the link below

Chrome Web Store

or

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone <repo-url>

2. Open Chrome and navigate to chrome://extensions.
3. Enable Developer mode (top-right toggle).
4. Click Load unpacked and select the guardext/ directory.

Usage

1. Click the GuardExt icon in the toolbar.
2. Click Scan Extensions.
3. Review the results — each extension is listed with its risk level and reasons.

Blocklist

The file data/malicious_ids.json contains entries in this format:

[
  {
    "id": "extension-id-here",
    "name": "Extension Name",
    "reason": "Brief description of malicious behavior"
  }
]

To add an entry, append an object to the array and push to main. The GitHub Actions workflow will deploy the updated list to GitHub Pages automatically.

Remote Blocklist (GitHub Pages)

The workflow at .github/workflows/deploy-blocklist.yml deploys malicious_ids.json to GitHub Pages on pushes to main. To enable it:

1. Go to your repo's Settings > Pages.
2. Set Source to GitHub Actions.
3. Set REMOTE_BLOCKLIST_URL in background/background.js to your Pages URL:

   https://<username>.github.io/<repo>/malicious_ids.json
   

The extension fetches the remote list first and falls back to the local copy if the fetch fails.

Permissions

Permission	Purpose
management	Read metadata of all installed extensions

License

MIT