Skip to main content

Part of the book series: Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing ((AISC,volume 516))

Abstract

Chrome browser extensions have become very popular among the users of Google Chrome and hence they are used by attackers to perform malicious activities which lead to loss of user’s sensitive data or damage to the user’s system. In this study, we have done an analysis on the security of the Chrome extension development APIs. We have used the STRIDE approach to identify the possible threats of the Chrome specific APIs which are used for extension development. The analysis results show that 23 out of the 63 Chrome specific APIs are having various threats as per the STRIDE approach. Information disclosure is the threat faced by many APIs followed by tampering. This threat analysis result can be used as reference for a tool which can detect whether the extension is malicious or not by deeply analysing the ways in which the APIs having threats are used in the extension code.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 299.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 379.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  1. L. Liu, X. Zhang, G. Yan, S. Chen, Chrome extensions: threat analysis and countermeasures, in NDSS (2012)

    Google Scholar 

  2. Microsoft STRIDE threat model, https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee823878%28v=cs.20%29.aspx

  3. S.F. Burns, Threat modeling: a process to ensure application security, in GIAC Security Essentials Certification (GSEC) Practical Assignment (2005)

    Google Scholar 

  4. N. Carlini, A. Porter Felt, D. Wagner, An evaluation of the google chrome extension security architecture, in Presented as Part of the 21st USENIX Security Symposium (USENIX Security 12), pp. 97–111 (2012)

    Google Scholar 

  5. V. Aravind, M. Sethumadhavan, A framework for analysing the security of chrome extensions. Adv. Comput. Netw. Inf. 2, 267–272 (2014)

    Google Scholar 

  6. J. Arunagiri, S. Rakhi, K.P. Jevitha, A systematic review of security measures for web browser extension vulnerabilities, in Proceedings of the International Conference on Soft Computing Systems (Springer India, 2016)

    Google Scholar 

  7. R. Zhao, C. Yue, Q. Yi, Automatic detection of information leakage vulnerabilities in browser extensions, in Proceedings of the 24th International Conference on World Wide Web (International World Wide Web Conferences Steering Committee, 2015)

    Google Scholar 

  8. A. Kapravelos, et al., Hulk: eliciting malicious behavior in browser extensions, in 23rd USENIX Security Symposium (USENIX Security 14) (2014)

    Google Scholar 

  9. N. Jagpal, et al., Trends and lessons from three years fighting malicious extensions, in 24th USENIX Security Symposium (USENIX Security 15) (2015)

    Google Scholar 

  10. K. Onarlioglu, et al., Sentinel: securing legacy firefox extensions. Comput. Secur. 49, 147–161 (2015)

    Google Scholar 

  11. X. Xing, et al., Understanding malvertising through ad-injecting browser extensions, in Proceedings of the 24th International Conference on World Wide Web (International World Wide Web Conferences Steering Committee, 2015)

    Google Scholar 

  12. Chrome extension developer guide, https://developer.chrome.com/extensions/overview

  13. Chromium blog, http://blog.chromium.org/

  14. Chrome extension specific API index, https://developer.chrome.com/extensions/api_index

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to P. K. Akshay Dev .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2017 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

About this paper

Cite this paper

Akshay Dev, P.K., Jevitha, K.P. (2017). STRIDE Based Analysis of the Chrome Browser Extensions API. In: Satapathy, S., Bhateja, V., Udgata, S., Pattnaik, P. (eds) Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Frontiers in Intelligent Computing: Theory and Applications . Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol 516. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-3156-4_17

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-3156-4_17

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore

  • Print ISBN: 978-981-10-3155-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-981-10-3156-4

  • eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics