Browser extensions are underrated: the promise of hackable software
I don't agree with the author. He pays lip service to security being important, but then proceeds to ignore the threat because he thinks extensions are great. I think people should be more hesitant to install a browser extension than just about any other piece of software.<p>The threat is absolutely real. Bad actors regularly offer large paydays to lone developers with popular extensions so they can roll out an update that quietly adds a backdoor.<p>There's at least <i>some</i> publicly documented evidence that Raymond Hill (uBlock Origin) isn't likely to cave to this sort of pressure, but do you really believe that <i>none</i> of the other authors of your fifteen favorite extensions would look the other way for $100k?<p>Keep in mind that these offers don't look like "Here's some money, please let us roll out an evil update to your extension." They look like "Our company has a product with a similar name. We love your extension and would like to offer to acquire it from you so that we can use the name. We'll even let you keep the rights to your software so that you can re-release it under a different name if you'd like!" They'll make it really easy for the developer to remain in denial about what they're actually facilitating.