Chrome Secure Preferences tampering to inject malicious extension

Arnold Chan@slaz

•updated Sep 27, 2026•1•0•4

Detects non-browser processes (e.g., non-chrome.exe/msedge.exe) modifying critical browser configuration files such as 'Secure Preferences' followed by near-simultaneous writes to extension-related directories like 'Extension State' or 'Extensions'. This pattern is indicative of a malicious attempt to bypass browser security integrity checks to silently install or load unauthorized extensions.