Fake Perplexity Chrome Extension Intercepts Search Traffic

Perplexity’s growing profile as an artificial intelligence search service has made its brand a target for impersonation. A malicious Chromium extension posing as an official Perplexity tool was designed to intercept users’ search traffic and collect sensitive data, including IP addresses and HTTP headers. The activity raises privacy and cybersecurity concerns because browser extensions can gain broad access to browsing sessions while appearing legitimate to consumers and corporate users.

Microsoft identified and reported the malicious extension, after which Google said it had removed the software. However, researchers still found it listed in the Chrome Web Store as of the report’s publication, suggesting the takedown had not been fully enforced. The extension had accumulated more than 10,000 installations, leaving a sizable pool of potentially affected users who may need to disable and delete it and review browser and account security.