Google forcibly removed the hugely popular extension ‘The Great Suspender’ from Google Chrome and classified it as malware.
The Great Suspender is a Chrome extension that will suspend unused tabs and load its resources to reduce the browser’s memory usage. When a user is ready to use the tab again, he simply has to click on it to make it visible.
This extension has been hugely popular with over 2,000,000 users and has been a recommended extension throughout due to its ability to reduce Chrome’s memory usage.
When Google removed it on Thursday, users left a message that “this extension contains malware”, but provided no further context on how to repair their suspended tabs or why they removed them.
With the sudden removal of The Great Suspender extension, users who had suspended tabs were upset that they could not access it again.
It is possible to see a list of suspended tabs through Chrome’s built-in history feature and use the list to recover the URL of the suspended web page.
Instructions on how to do this, as well as other methods, can be found on this support page.
The Great Suspender’s Falling Out of Grace
In June 2020, the developer of The Great Suspender sold the extension to an unknown entity as he did not have the time to maintain the project properly.
At the time, users were suspicious about the sale because they would have the reason why someone would buy a free open source extension that generates no revenue for the developer.
Since free extensions were purchased in the past and then earned with malicious changes, such as ads or information stolen, users were worried that the same would happen with The Great Suspender.
Unfortunately, the user’s concern was justified when the new maintenance updated the extension in October 2020 to release version 7.1.8, which contains scripts that track user behavior and execute code retrieved from a remote server .
This malicious activity resulted in Microsoft uninstalling the Microsoft Edge Store extension and a new 7.1.9 release without the malicious scripts.
However, the extension remains in the hands of these unknown developers, who may introduce malicious code at a later time, possibly without the users realizing it.
On Thursday, Google pulled the Chrome Web Store extension as malware, but provided no reason for it. It’s not clear whether Google discovered additional malicious scripts or responded to its history and community concerns.
For those who really want to use the extension of The Great Suspender, the GitHub project page offers version 7.1.6, which is the final version of the extension when owned by the original developer and does not contain malicious scripts.
To install the extension, you must do so through Chrome’s developer mode, which is not recommended as it removes the security benefits offered by the Google extension process.