This popular Chrome extension just got flagged for malware

One of my favorite Google Chrome extensions for work is Save as Image Type, which lets you save images on the web in a more familiar format. Unfortunately, it turns out Google Chrome has disabled this extension, but for good reason.

I spotted an alert in my Chrome browser, noting that Save as Image Type has been blocked due to the add-on containing malware. Check out our screenshot below.

I’m not the only one suffering from this issue, as colleague Aamir Siddiqui also received this alert in his Chrome browser. Furthermore, a two-day-old Reddit thread confirms that others have also been affected by this problem. In fact, an old Reddit thread suggests that Microsoft Edge may have removed this extension from its own repository roughly a year ago.

So what does this malware do, then? Well, someone flagged the extension two weeks ago, suggesting that it could be modifying Amazon and Best Buy affiliate links.

“I thought it was an issue with BestBuy’s website. Visiting any link that wasn’t the main .com site, including links from the main page itself, would always redirect back to the main page. Got fed up with it since it doesn’t happen in incognito mode,” wrote Redditor UtahJarhead.

“It seems this extension also screws with Amazon.com links, which hasn’t affected me, but others have reported that it modifies affiliate links. Sounds a bit like what Honey was doing a year or more back.”

For the uninitiated, the Honey extension claimed to save users money by applying coupons during checkout from various websites. However, a 2024 investigation revealed that Honey was poaching affiliate links to wrongfully claim affiliate revenue. So it sounds like the Save Image as Type add-on may have been engaged in similar behavior.

In any event, Save as Image Type was particularly useful for saving pesky WebP images in PNG or JPEG formats. Some users have recommended Save Image As JPG, PNG, WebP, although we haven’t tested this yet. I’ve installed Save as Image Converter, which seems like a capable add-on and gets a very cautious thumbs-up from me.

We’ve nevertheless asked Google for an official explanation of why the extension was blocked, and we’ll update our article as soon as the company responds to us.