Reports began to appear yesterday on Google Chrome’s official support forum about a new extension that installed itself automatically in the browser. Chrome users noticed that the Settings Protector extension appeared on the extensions page of the browser without their doing. According to reports, the extension installed itself automatically in the browser. The only information displayed on the extensions page is the name of the extension, Settings Protector, and its version, 1.0.

No information have been provided about Chrome versions, new software installations, updates, or anything else that may be related to the automatic installation of the extension. Right now, it is not clear what triggers the installation of Settings Protector in the browser. It sounds like an extension that would ship with a security program, but it can as well be installed through exploits of the browser or the operating system, malware that managed to compromise the system, or as part of an adware offer of regular applications.

Here is how you can check whether Settings Protector is installed on your system. Open the Chrome web browser and click on the settings icon at the top right. Select Tools > Extensions from the context menu and look for Settings Protector 1.0 there. If you find it there, disable it or click on the trashcan icon to delete it from the browser.

I highly suggest to run a scan with Malwarebytes AntiMalware and Dr.Web CureIt to make sure it was not dropped by malware still running on the system.

To help sort this out, it would be helpful if you could report your Chrome version, channel you are on and whether Settings Protector is listed under extensions or not. If it is listed, add security programs and recent installations/updates on your system. I checked Chrome Canary 24 and it was not installed on it. (via Caschy)