Google plans to release an update of its Chrome cleanup tool to help users with the force-installed extension removal. That change was found in the source code of Chrome, where is visible that an update of the Chrome Cleanup utilities will now allow users to delete the extensions that have been installed on the computer without the user’s consent.
In case you didn’t know, Google Chrome has a cleanup tool that is currently only available for Windows computers. You can find it in the Settings section, under the “Advanced Settings -> Reset and clean up -> Clean up computer” section. Alternatively, you can access Chrome Cleanup Tool by typing chrome://settings/cleanup in the address bar.
Currently, if you access this function, Chrome scans your computer for malware and malicious software, but in the future, Google will implement the new force-installed extension removal feature that will allow the browser to automatically detect and remove those extensions that have been installed by force on the computer, without the user’s consent.
Chrome Cleanup Tool Gets Force-Installed Extension Removal Feature
These force-installed extensions are those that Chrome automatically installs without consulting the user due to the policies configured by administrators in Windows. These guidelines are used by administrators to prepare the browser with the extensions that are commonly used in the organization, and, for this reason, they are installed without the user validating the respective operation.
However, cybercriminals can also make use of these policies to install and launch malicious Chrome extensions without the permission of the user. Also, these types of extensions have the added disadvantage that they cannot be easily removed, as it is necessary to modify the registry to remove them.
For all these reasons, Google’s idea of including force-installed extension removal in the Chrome Cleanup tool is a smart way to tackle those malicious Chrome extensions.
