Is Coupons Search safe?
Coupons Search sets searchext.com as your default search engine, routing every address-bar query through a Yahoo-syndication redirect.
The extension's manifest overrides Chrome's default search provider so address-bar and default searches are sent to searchext.com, which forwards each query to Yahoo as a monetized syndication partner. The full search text is interpolated into the request URL on every default search. A content script on yahoo.com pages also overlays a full-screen 'Extension successfully installed / Click Keep Changes' prompt with looping audio that points the user at Chrome's button to accept the search override.
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Findings
Default search routed through searchext.com to monetized Yahoo syndication
This extension sets searchext.com as the default search engine.
Searches from the address bar or popup route through www.searchext.com to a monetized Yahoo feed carrying its own affiliate tag.
A marker query reached Yahoo verbatim, tagged.
You type a search query into the address bar or the extension's toolbar search box and press Enter.
The extension's default-search override sends your query to www.searchext.com, which forwards it to a monetized Yahoo syndication feed.
The query is placed in the p= parameter of a GET request and carries the syndication tags hspart=ssl and hsimp=yhs-003 plus the extension's own affiliate type tag.
The default-search override is set in the manifest; the handler builds the same searchext.com URL.
var performSearch = function (searchString, tabIndex = -1) {
if (searchString) {
isValidHttpUrl(searchString, function (httpCheck) {
new Promise((resolve) => {
if (httpCheck && httpCheck.isResolved !== false) {
chrome.tabs.create({ "url": httpCheck.href });
} else {
let typeParam = ("cs" + searchNumber + "-popsrc-" + (isFirefox ? "FF" : "CH"));
let url = "https://www.searchext.com/search/?hspart=ssl&hsimp=yhs-003&type=" + typeParam + "&q=1&p=" + searchString;
chrome.tabs.create({ "url": url });
}
}, tabIndex);
});
}
};- www.searchext.com
Receives the typed query in the p= parameter as the configured default search engine, then redirects to Yahoo.
- search.yahoo.com
Yahoo (operated by Yahoo/Apollo Global). Serves the results page via its syndication program (hspart=ssl, hsimp=yhs-003) and records a referrer beacon naming searchext.com.
Search terms are query strings, not credentials or browsing history. Chrome displays a one-time consent prompt when an extension changes the default search engine; the override only takes effect if that prompt is accepted or kept, and it can be reverted under chrome://settings/search.