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Programming News

Version 1.1 View in Chrome Web Store

Last scanned: about 7 hours ago

Extension Details

Rating: 3.0 ★ (1 rating)

Users: 118

Context-Aware Verdict

MEDIUM

Overall Risk

Trust Factors:

The extension has very limited adoption with only 118 users and a single rating of 3.0 stars, indicating minimal community validation. The lack of developer information and company details raises transparency concerns. However, the extension's purpose appears straightforward - aggregating programming news from legitimate sources like Hacker News and Reddit's programming subreddit.

Concerns:

- Extremely low user base suggests limited vetting by the community

- Missing developer information reduces accountability and trustworthiness

- Uses outdated Manifest V2, which has weaker security protections compared to V3

- Storage permission allows local data retention, though this appears reasonable for a news aggregation tool

- Single rating provides insufficient feedback on extension quality and behavior

- No clear update timeline or maintenance schedule visible

Recommendations:

Given the medium risk level, consider running this extension in a separate Chrome profile to isolate potential security issues from your main browsing environment. The low user count and lack of developer transparency are concerning red flags. You might want to look for alternative programming news extensions with better community adoption, regular updates, and Manifest V3 compliance. If you choose to use this extension, monitor its behavior closely and be prepared to remove it if any suspicious activity occurs. Consider bookmarking the news sources directly instead of relying on this unvetted extension.

Findings

MEDIUM

Medium-Risk Permission: storage

This extension has the storage permission. Can store data locally.

MEDIUM

Older Manifest Version

This extension uses Manifest Version 2, which has fewer security restrictions than Manifest V3. Consider using extensions that have upgraded to V3.

Raw Manifest

{
  "name": "Programming News",
  "icons": {
    "16": "images/icon16.png",
    "48": "images/icon48.png",
    "128": "images/icon128.png"
  },
  "version": "1.1",
  "background": {
    "page": "background.html"
  },
  "update_url": "http://clients2.google.com/service/update2/crx",
  "description": "Aggregates the top news items from Hacker News and Reddit /r/programming",
  "permissions": [
    "storage",
    "https://news.ycombinator.com/*",
    "http://www.reddit.com/r/programming"
  ],
  "browser_action": {
    "default_icon": {
      "19": "images/icon19.png",
      "38": "images/icon38.png"
    },
    "default_popup": "popup.html",
    "default_title": "Programming News"
  },
  "manifest_version": 2
}

by ✦ Astarte

Programming News

Extension Details

Context-Aware Verdict

Findings

Security Analysis Details

Required Permissions:

Embedded URLs (5 total):

Raw Manifest

Detections

Manifest Findings

http://news.ycombinator.com/	https://news.ycombinator.com/
http://www.reddit.com/r/programming	http://clients2.google.com/service/update2/crx
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/programming-news/ggmnmmjaecmnabilobpplklijinifpip?hl=en-US&gl=US