A privilege escalation from Chrome extensions (2023)

A bit of background What's the worst thing a Chrome extension could do to you? Well, it could steal your passwords and cookies, or it could continuously close your tabs. Obviously, these are bad and annoying, but there are limitations to the power of extensions. Can they run exe files? Not really. They can download files at any time, but opening those downloads requires a special permission and a user gesture. Can they change your settings? Generally, no. The general design idea for Chrome extensions is that they shouldn't be able to make permanent changes that persist after they're uninstalled. Alright then, what about editing or reading local files? The rules are a little convoluted when it comes to this: Extensions shouldn't be able to read local files That is, unless the "allow access to file URLs" switch is turned on in the extension's options Chrome apps--like the Text app--are sometimes sometimes able to edit local files, but only when those files are explicitly opened by the ... Read full article.