π― AI
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Executive summary: Urban VPN Proxy, a Chrome extension with over 6 million users, was observed harvesting AI chat data across multiple platforms. The extension injects platform-specific executor scripts, overrides core browser network APIs, and forwards captured conversations to Urban VPN infrastructure.
Technical details:
β’ The extension deploys dedicated executor scripts (examples: chatgpt.js, claude.js, gemini.js) when targeted AI platform pages load.
β’ Injected code wraps and overrides fetch and XMLHttpRequest so all request and response payloads for the page flow through the extension first.
β’ Extracted fields include user prompts, model responses, conversation IDs, timestamps, session metadata, and the specific AI platform/model used.
β’ Inter-script messaging uses window.postMessage with an identifier PANELOS_MESSAGE to pass parsed data to the extension content script.
β’ The content script forwards packaged, compressed data to the background service worker, which transmits to endpoints such as analytics.urban-vpn.com and stats.urban-vpn.com.
Analysis:
β’ The approach is highly invasive: overriding fetch/XMLHttpRequest captures both outgoing prompts and incoming model outputs before rendering, exposing full conversation context.
β’ Harvesting is independent of VPN functionality and enabled by hardcoded flags with no user-visible opt-out, increasing exposure risk for users who installed the extension for privacy reasons.
Detection guidance:
β’ Monitor outbound connections to analytics.urban-vpn.com and stats.urban-vpn.com from browser processes.
β’ Inspect loaded extension scripts for executor filenames and for patterns overriding fetch/XMLHttpRequest and using window.postMessage with PANELOS_MESSAGE.
Limitations:
β’ Public reporting indicates the extension targeted ten AI platforms; specific historical timeline details were not fully enumerated in the source.
β’ No CVE identifiers or named threat actor attribution were provided in the disclosed findings.
References / Tags:
chatgpt.js, claude.js, PANELOS_MESSAGE, analytics.urban-vpn.com
πΉ ai #privacy #browser_extension #data_exfiltration
π Source: https://www.koi.ai/blog/urban-vpn-browser-extension-ai-conversations-data-collection
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