This afternoon, Google removed the popular extension The Great Suspender because it contains malware, and proactively eliminates the extension for those who have it.
The Great Suspender is – or maybe wash – an extension that puts your excess tabs to sleep, which helps Chrome not use up too much RAM and other resources. Last year, as TheMageKing explained in detail, the development of The Great Suspender changed hands and subsequently sold to an unknown third party.
Then, with version 7.1.8, The Great Suspender added an extension that can be used to execute almost any type of code on your computer without your knowledge. This exploit resulted in the removal of Microsoft Edge’s expansion market extension, but The Great Suspender was allowed to remain in the Chrome Web Store, as a later update apparently removed the exploit.
This afternoon, it appears Google has forced the removal of The Great Suspender due to malware by removing the Chrome Web Store extension. Furthermore, the Chrome extension was forcibly disabled by someone who had The Great Suspender previously installed in Chrome.
Unfortunately, for those who were active users of The Great Suspender, this forced shutdown of the extension caused any suspended tabs to close and was effectively lost. Fortunately, the community of extension has found a way to potentially discover your lost tabs. Simply open chrome: // history – you can also open it by pressing Ctrl-H in Chrome – and searching for The Great Suspender extension ID: “klbibkeccnjlkjkiokjodocebajanakg.” Each result should be a tab that you have suspended, and at the bottom of each URL is the URL of the page you searched for.
For example, a suspended tab may have a URL as follows:
chrome extension://klbibkeccnjlkjkiokjodocebajanakg/suspended.html
# ttl = reddit% 3A% 20the% 20front% 20 page% 20 of% 20 the% 20 internet & post = 6807
& uri = https:// www.reddit.com /
At the end, after “uri =”, is the URL of your missing tab. In this case, your missing tab for ‘https:// www.reddit.com /. ”
It’s not known if The Great Suspender will be permanently removed from the Chrome Web Store, or if it will be repaired in a timely manner. Meanwhile, the community has unveiled the latest malware-free version of The Great Suspender to create The Marvelous Suspender, now available in the Chrome Web Store.
h / t Justin Duino
FTC: We use revenue to earn automatically affiliate links. More.
Check out 9to5Google on YouTube for more news: