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SPELLCHECKERS IN GOOGLE CHROME COULD EXPOSE YOUR PASSWORDS

By Monica J. White September 19, 2022 9:27AM
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If you like to be thorough and use an advanced spellchecker, we have some bad
news — your personal information could be in danger.

Using the extended spellcheck in Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge transmits
everything you input in order for it to be checked. Unfortunately, this includes
information that should be strictly encrypted, such as passwords.

Chrome & Edge Enhanced Spellcheck Features Expose PII, Even Your Passwords

This issue, first reported by JavaScript security firm otto-js, was discovered
accidentally while the company was testing its script behaviors detection. Josh
Summitt, co-founder and CTO of otto-js, explains that pretty much everything you
enter in form fields with advanced spellchecker enabled is later transmitted to
Google and Microsoft.



“If you click on ‘show password,’ the enhanced spellcheck even sends your
password, essentially spell-jacking your data,” said otto-js in its report.
“Some of the largest websites in the world have exposure to sending Google and
Microsoft sensitive user PII [personally identifiable information], including
username, email, and passwords, when users are logging in or filling out forms.
An even more significant concern for companies is the exposure this presents to
the company’s enterprise credentials to internal assets like databases and cloud
infrastructure.”

Related
Uber says it’s investigating ‘cybersecurity incident’
Computing·News
Read Next

Many people use “show password” in order to make sure they haven’t made a typo,
so potentially, a lot of passwords could be at risk here. Bleeping Computer
tested this further and found that entering your username and password on CNN
and Facebook sent the data to Google, while SSA.gov, Bank of America, and
Verizon only sent the usernames.

Both Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome come with built-in spellcheckers that are
pretty basic. These tools don’t require any further verification — what you
input stays within your browser. However, if you’re using Chrome’s Enhanced
Spellcheck or Microsoft’s Editor Spelling & Grammar Checker, everything you type
in the browser is then sent to Google and Microsoft respectively.

That, in itself, is not unexpected. When you enable the enhanced spellchecker in
Chrome, the browser tells you that the “text that you type in the browser is
sent to Google.” However, many people would expect that this excludes PII that
is often submitted in forms.

The severity of this depends on the websites you visit. Some form data may
include Social Security numbers and Social Insurance numbers, your full name,
address, and payment information. Login credentials also fall under this
category.

It’s understandable that your inputs are sent outside of the browser in order to
utilize the improved spellchecker, but it’s hard not to question how secure this
is when personal data also receives that same treatment.


HOW TO STAY SAFE

Andrew Brookes/Getty Images

If you’d rather not have your personal data transmitted to Microsoft and Google,
you should stop using the advanced spellchecker for the time being. This means
disabling the feature in your Chrome settings. Simply copy and paste this into
your browser’s address bar: chrome://settings/?search=Enhanced+Spell+Check.

For Microsoft Edge, the advanced spellchecker comes in the form of a browser
add-on, so simply right-click the icon of that extension in your browser and
then tap on Remove from Microsoft Edge.

Google has ensured that it doesn’t attach any user identity to the data it
processes for the spellchecker. However, it will work on excluding passwords
from this entirely. Microsoft said it will investigate the problem, but didn’t
follow up with Bleeping Computer beyond that just yet. Microsoft currently has
another problem with Edge: hackers are using it to run a malvertising campaign.

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