False Positive: Chrome flags extension as containing malware

[markstrom]

Describe the bug
Chrome displays a warning stating that the extension contains malware and is unsafe. The message recommends removing the extension because it can see and change data on websites you visit, including personal information.

To Reproduce

1. Open Chrome
2. Go to chrome://extensions/
3. Locate the extension
4. Chrome shows the message: “Chrome recommends you review this extension. This extension contains malware and is unsafe...”

Expected behavior
The extension should not be flagged by Chrome as containing malware. It should function normally and be recognized as safe.

Extension version:
1.0.17

Additional context
The issue appeared without any recent configuration changes or new installations. It’s possible that a recent Chrome update triggered this warning.

[sebastienfontaine]

Hey,

Our Chrome developer account was suspended without any prior warning.
We have contacted Google Support to request clarification and details about the reason for this action.

At this stage, we haven’t made any recent changes to the extension or its configuration that could explain this flag. We’ll update this thread as soon as we receive more information from Google.

Best regards

[Tback1]

It's quite strange, 1.17 has been updated for 7 months, and the Chrome Store is crazy when I think about it

[sebastienfontaine]

Yeah, it’s crazy — they didn’t send any warning at all.

There hasn’t been a single change in 7 months, and we even had the “Featured” badge on the Chrome Web Store.
They usually perform a thorough review for every release…

At worst, they could have just temporarily blocked the app, but instead they went as far as suspending the entire account 😕.

[Oxigenium]

That's clearly a corporative bullshit which is same for any ad blockers or other stuff that is making chrome better - they just didn't like the outcome that some of their ad sites gets closed automatically when users made that in settings.

In such case, do we have any options? Like installing extension manually not from store but from packed distributive? Or that will be prevented by chrome v3 manifest?

Also how to extract options from already disabled extension?

[sebastienfontaine]

You can still install it manually.

Just download the following ZIP, unzip it locally, and then load it in Chrome using “Load unpacked” from the Extensions page (chrome://extensions).

tab-modifier.zip

Steps:

1. Go to chrome://extensions
2. Enable Developer mode (top right)
3. Click Load unpacked
4. Select the extracted folder from the downloaded release

This will work fine even with Manifest V3 — the issue only affects Web Store distribution, not local installs.

As for extracting the saved options from a disabled extension, I’m not sure if that’s possible 😟

[pascal-ws]

MS Edge is also affected, disables the extension automatically and states "This extension contains malware" (translated) but no details. Good luck resolving this

[ParaMigi]

As for extracting the saved options from a disabled extension, I’m not sure if that’s possible 😟

Would it be possible by copying the src folder from the installed extension to the newly downloaded manual extension before loading? I found the extension folder like this:

1. Go to AppData folder ( online it says C:\Users\[Username]\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Extensions but for me it was actually C:\Users\[Username]\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Profile 1\Extensions )
2. Find the ID of the extension ( Should be displayed on the extension's card in the extension menu in Chrome, otherwise click on Details ). Should look something like hcbgadmbdkiilgpifjgcakjehmafcjai.
3. In the file explorer from step 1, open the folder with the same name as the ID from step 2.

I already loaded the extension and had luckily exported my settings last week, so I don't need to try this, but maybe someone else can say if it works?

[Oxigenium]

I figured it out how to restore all rules and settings from disabled extension. Firstly I loaded unpacked extension as sebastienfontaine recommended. Next, I went to Local Extension Settings folder of chrome. For me it was in ~/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/Profile 1/Local Extension Settings/<extension_id>/
(For PC it might be in _C:\Users[Username]\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Profile 1\Extensions\Local Extension Settings<extension_id>_)
Located extension_id of disabled extension in extension manager and also a new one and just replaced content of that folder with content of previous. After restarting chrome all my rules were available and I can make a backup json

This extension is very crucial for me, without it I can't manage all my work-related and other tabs and google once again made things worse for me. Oh god only thing required from them is just don't touch anything

[pascal-ws]

As for extracting the saved options from a disabled extension, I’m not sure if that’s possible 😟

I guess that depends on where the settings are stored? If the extension saves them in the localstorage or extension storage this might be possible.

I have successfully retrieved all settings/scripts for my TamperMonkey extension after losing my installation from a backup of my PC in the past by accessing the LevelDB file (used for the chrome storage) and extracting the information I needed (basically just a key-value-store).

Here is an official script that was recommended in some issues, it's python but shows how you can do it:
https://gist.github.com/derjanb/9f6c10168e63c3dc3cf0

See also: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/11850460/where-are-chrome-tampermonkey-userscripts-stored-on-the-filesystem

I didn't use python back then but NodeJS and the level-db-viewer
https://github.com/pcan/leveldb-viewer/tree/master

Maybe this works for this extension, too? It did save me hours of lost scripts back then.

[curtisthefox]

I figured it out how to restore all rules and settings from disabled extension. Firstly I loaded unpacked extension as sebastienfontaine recommended. Next, I went to Local Extension Settings folder of chrome. For me it was in ~/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/Profile 1/Local Extension Settings/<extension_id>/ (For PC it might be in C:\Users[Username]\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Profile 1\Extensions\Local Extension Settings<extension_id>) Located extension_id of disabled extension in extension manager and also a new one and just replaced content of that folder with content of previous. After restarting chrome all my rules were available and I can make a backup json

This extension is very crucial for me, without it I can't manage all my work-related and other tabs and google once again made things worse for me. Oh god only thing required from them is just don't touch anything

Thank you for the instructions! I used this for Edge on macOS as well and can confirm I was able to recover my settings and export a backup. The folder is nearly identical, but I'll paste anyway in case it helps someone else: ~/Library/Application Support/Microsoft Edge/Profile 1/Local Extension Settings.