Simple Tab Sorter Chrome extension security report

"Simple Tab Sorter" is a free and open-source Google Chrome extension for people who want quick and easy user-customizable tab sorting and grouping. In addition to standard URL or title-based sorting, its "killer features" are: * Respects Google Chrome's Tab Groups. * User configurable sort behavior for handling tabs suspended by extensions forked from The Great Suspender (please review the User Guide under Options for configuration instructions). * Simple manual override of tab group sort order. Bug reports are welcome at https://github.com/pwhite2/simple-tab-sorter/issues. If you want additional functionality, please take a look at https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/super-tab-sorter/jjhppbooocacaccnhjninhmigbfmpnkh instead. Thanks! Peter PLEASE READ BEFORE INSTALLING AND SUBMITTING NEGATIVE REVIEWS: 1. Simple Tab Sorter v0.4.0 and later require Chrome version 88 or later. If you're using an older version of Chrome, you can manually install v0.3.3 by following the instructions at https://github.com/pwhite2/simple-tab-sorter#install-as-an-extension-from-source . 2. "Read your browsing history" permission warning during install in versions 0.4.0 and later... Chrome changed the permissions message for "tabs" permissions for manifest v3 extensions. The new release (0.4.0) isn't doing anything with the tabs API that it wasn't doing before - i.e., it doesn't have access to your browser history, just the currently open tab URLs which are required to sort by URL. You can see the requested permissions for this extension at https://github.com/pwhite2/simple-tab-sorter/blob/master/src/manifest.json. The developer documentation for the "tabs" API (https://developer.chrome.com/docs/extensions/reference/api/tabs) states: "The "tabs" permission This permission does not give access to the chrome.tabs namespace. Instead, it grants an extension the ability to call tabs.query() against four sensitive properties on tabs.Tab instances: url, pendingUrl, title, and favIconUrl." As you'll see, there is NO mention of "history" anywhere in the "chrome.tabs" developer documentation. To have access to your browsing history, an extension would have to specify "history" in the manifest.json permissions, which you can verify this doesn't, as documented at https://developer.chrome.com/docs/extensions/reference/api/history. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 2025-05-27: Version 0.4.2 released * Fix extension stuck in welcome/update message loop due to apparent browser implementation change. 2024-01-04: Version 0.4.1 released * Fixed sort all windows bug resulting from conversion to manifest v3 2023-12-19: Version 0.4.0 released * Converted to Chrome manifest v3 * Added support for Chrome's Tab Groups 2023-04-25: Version 0.3.3 released * Fixed https://github.com/pwhite2/simple-tab-sorter/issues/21 - now compatible with Chrome's new suspended tabs. 2021-07-14: Version 0.3.2 released * Fixed https://github.com/pwhite2/simple-tab-sorter/issues/8 - sorting now *ignores* tabs in tab groups. * Sort by URL now ignores leading "www." of URLs if present Changes viewable at https://github.com/pwhite2/simple-tab-sorter/pull/14 2021-02-21: Version 0.3.1 released * Removed Google Analytics code * Added support for extensions derived from The Great Suspender now that it's been removed from the Chrome Web Store and derivative works have been submitted. Changes viewable at https://github.com/pwhite2/simple-tab-sorter/pull/12 2020-06-29: Version 0.3.0 released * Added "Sort pinned tabs" option and disabled it by default * Added short form to collect user feedback when extension is removed