Simon Willison (@simon@simonwillison.net)
fedi.simonwillison.net
It turns out Google Chrome ships a default, hidden extension that allows code on `*.google.com` access to private APIs, including your current CPU usage You can test it out by pasting the following into your Chrome DevTools console on any Google page: chrome.runtime.sendMessage( "nkeimhogjdpnpccoofpliimaahmaaome", { method: "cpu.getInfo" }, (response) => { console.log(JSON.stringify(response, null, 2)); }, ); More notes here: https://simonwillison.net/2024/Jul/9/hangout_servicesthunkjs/
    • Pechente@feddit.orgEnglish
      54·
      4 months ago

      Probably already installed. That would at least explain the high resource usage of chrome

    • zqwzzle@lemmy.caEnglish
      24·
      4 months ago

      The shitty reboot of Office Space where some low level Google employee realizes they can stick a crypto miner in every browser and generate a couple cents from everyone’s browser.

  • abbadon420@lemm.ee
    13·
    4 months ago

    Here’s the plan. You write an extension for chrome that makes chrome think all traffic from [cryptominingcentral.com] is actually from *.google.com. Make folks install the plugin via the tried and tested methods like phishing. … profit

    • authorinthedark@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
      13·
      4 months ago

      couldn’t you do that anyway if you can get people to install an extension? taking advantage of this for crypto mining purposes feels like extra steps

    • BlueÆther@no.lastname.nz
      14·
      4 months ago

      yeah:

      {
  "value": {
    "archName": "arm64",
    "features": [],
    "modelName": "Apple M2",
    "numOfProcessors": 8,
    "processors": [
      {
        "usage": {
          "idle": 10841460,
          "kernel": 611796,
          "total": 13342920,
          "user": 1889664
        }
      },...
      • Hirom@beehaw.org
        4·
        4 months ago

        Neither. I use a chromium package from my linux distribution.

        It has many patches on top of the upstream chromium. That probably explain why that unwanted feature isn’t there.

        This issue appear on Google Chrome for Windows on my other machine. Just uninstalled it, never used it anyway.