The other extensions in your browser can see your wallet

When people think about crypto security they think about seed phrases and phishing sites. Rarely do they think about the little icons next to their address bar. Yet every extension with "read and change all your data on all websites" can watch your wallet — and some are built to do exactly that.

What a malicious extension can do

• Swap addresses on the page. You paste the right address; the extension changes what the site displays or what gets submitted.
• Rewrite transaction requests between the site and your wallet, turning a swap into an approval.
• Steal what you type or paste — including a recovery phrase you entered on what looked like a real wallet site.
• Inject fake popups that imitate your wallet asking you to "re-enter" your phrase.

How bad extensions get in

Some are malicious from day one, dressed up as "gas trackers", "portfolio tools" or "web3 security" — the irony is real. Others start honest and turn: the developer sells the extension, or their account is compromised, and an automatic update ships the payload to every existing user. That's the uncomfortable part — an extension you vetted two years ago can become hostile overnight without asking you again.

A five-minute audit

• Open chrome://extensions and look at every entry. Don't recognise it? Remove it.
• Check each one's permissions. A colour picker that can "read all data on all sites" doesn't need to — and now it can't, because you removed it.
• Prefer extensions with site-scoped access ("on click" or specific sites) over blanket access.
• Keep your wallet browser profile lean: wallet, CapyGuard, and as little else as possible. Do your casual browsing in a separate profile.

Where CapyGuard fits in

CapyGuard can't vouch for your other extensions — no extension can police its siblings. What it does do is keep its own permission footprint small and its protection local: no account, no analytics, nothing you type ever leaves your browser. The leaner your extension list, the smaller the surface an attacker has — and CapyGuard is built to earn its place on a very short list.