A malicious Firefox add-on named “Safepal Wallet” managed to stay listed on the official Mozilla add-ons website for seven months as it scammed users by emptying out their cryptocurrency wallets.
SafePal is a legitimate hardware cryptocurrency wallet that is designed to hold more than 10,000 types of assets, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin.
However, while the wallet does have official smartphone apps available for both Apple AppStore and Google Play Store, the website doesn’t list any browser extensions.“After I installed this extension and logged in with my credentials it was not working,” reported Firefox user Cali, adding that when they checked back about 8 hours later, their cryptos worth around $4000 had been transferred to another wallet.
Due diligence
Within five days of Cali’s public report of the incident this month, a Mozilla spokesperson responded saying that they were investigating the incident, before dropping the fake add-on’s listing.
Reporting on the development, BleepingComputer explains that in order to publish an add-on on Mozilla’s add-ons website, developers must follow a submission process that states submitted add-ons are “subject to review by Mozilla at any time.”
However, the extent of such a review isn’t specified, nor has Mozilla explained how the fake add-on managed to get listed.
Furthermore, while the malicious browser add-on has been taken down, BleepingComputer reports that the phishing website set up by the threat actors is still up. The website asks users for their secret twelve-word backup phrase in order to pair the SafePal wallet, which is then silently sent to the threat actor behind the fake extension.
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