In this episode of Secure Disclosure, we go behind the scenes of the infamous Honey browser extension scandal with special guest J3lte, the engineer who uncovered the data that helped expose what was really happening.
From affiliate link manipulation to massive user tracking across thousands of stores, J3lte breaks down how he reverse-engineered Honey, what he discovered, and why browser extensions can be far more dangerous than most people realize.
Stay tuned for the untold technical story behind one of the biggest consumer security scandals online.
Follow J3lte - https://x.com/j3lte
Original Videos from MegaLag
1st Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vc4yL3YTwWk
2nd Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwB3FmbcC88
3rd Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCGT_CKGgFE
Other videos covering the scandal (that are awesome)
The PrimeTime - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_acTMUmdY9M
Marques Brownlee - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAx_RtMKPm8
News Links
ClawdBot VS Extensions Malware https://www.aikido.dev/blog/fake-clawdbot-vscode-extension-malware
Contagious Interview Link: https://opensourcemalware.com/blog/contagious-code-fake-font
Chapters
00:00 – The Honey Scandal Returns
02:11 – Users, Merchants, and Hidden Coupon Abuse
03:36 – Meet J3lte: The Engineer Behind the Investigation
05:07 – Discovering 180,000 Stores in Honey’s Data
07:11 – Affiliate Links Without Coupons: No Value Provided
09:49 – Why Browser Extensions Are So Hard to Trust
13:54 – Malware Trend: The Fake Claudebot VS Code Extension
15:57 - Contagious Interview Coverage
18:38 - SoundCloud Hack