Comment on Google Chrome ships a default, hidden extension that allows code on *.google.com access to private APIs, including your current CPU usage

hendrik@palaver.p3x.de ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

• wanderingmagus@lemm.ee ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  It’s apparently built into chromium

  source

  • hendrik@palaver.p3x.de ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    I don't think so. I haven't had a look at the code, but executing that command from the post returns the following on my Chromium:

    VM68:1 Uncaught TypeError: Cannot read properties of undefined (reading 'sendMessage')
        at [HTML_REMOVED]:1:16
    (anonymous) @ VM68:1
    

    source

    • wanderingmagus@lemm.ee ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      It turns out Google Chrome (via Chromium) includes a default extension which makes extra services available to code running on the *.google.com domains - tweeted about today by Luca Casonato, but the code has been there in the public repo since October 2013 as far as I can tell.

      It looks like it’s a way to let Google Hangouts (or presumably its modern predecessors) get additional information from the browser, including the current load on the user’s CPU. Update: On Hacker News a Googler confirms that the Google Meet “troubleshooting” feature uses this to review CPU utilization

      The code doesn’t do anything on non-Google domains.

      Maybe it’s because you tried it on a non Google site? Idk.

      source

      • hendrik@palaver.p3x.de ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        Hehe, I read that sentence, tried it on google.com

        But forget what I said. I have the ungoogled variant of Chromium installed. No wonder that's not in there...

        source