Is Quick Engine Switch safe?
Quick Engine Switch routes address-bar search terms through quickengineswitch.com.
Quick Engine Switch sets Chrome's address-bar search provider to quickengineswitch.com, so searches entered in the address bar are sent there with the search terms in the URL. Its background redirect rule can rewrite that request based on the selected search engine while keeping the query string on the vendor endpoint.
Who publishes itVPP Technologies LLC - 13 other listings from the same operator, 2 of them carrying a finding
VPP Technologies LLC - 13 other listings from the same operator, 2 of them carrying a finding
What this publisher told the store about itself, and the other listings that told it the same thing.
Same store account
2 other listings published from this account, 16k+ users between them. 1 of them carries a finding.
Same operator - 11 listings
Published under a different store account, but sharing the registered address, contact or declared legal entity this one gave the store.
AI-generated. Findings may contain errors. Those marked Verified have been manually reviewed.
Publishers can request a review.
Findings
Quick Engine Switch relays every default search through its own domain
Installing this extension makes quickengineswitch.com your browser's default search engine.
Every search typed in the address bar is sent there before it reaches Google, Bing, or Yahoo.
- Severity
- Medium unwanted
- Type
- Unexpected
- CWE
- CWE-359
- Source
- Dynamic sandbox
You type a search phrase into the browser's address bar and press enter.
This uses whatever engine is set as the browser's default.
The browser sends your search phrase to quickengineswitch.com instead of going straight to Google, Bing, or Yahoo.
quickengineswitch.com then forwards you on to the engine you picked in the extension's popup.
307 redirect to https://quickengineswitch.com/ext/search?src=google&q=best+noise+cancelling+headphones+2026 (src rewritten from default to the popup-selected engine by the extension's own declarativeNetRequest rule), then 302 to https://www.google.com/search?q=best+noise+cancelling+headphones+2026 (200). The search phrase above is illustrative, standing in for the planted test phrase used to verify the request; the redirect chain and parameter names are exactly as captured.
- Your search phrasebest noise cancelling headphones 2026
The full text you typed into the address bar, including anything sensitive you searched for.
- Selected search enginesrc=google
Which of Google, Bing, or Yahoo you last chose in the extension's popup.
- quickengineswitch.com
Set as the browser's default search provider; receives every address-bar search before redirecting to Google, Bing, or Yahoo. No privacy policy is linked from the listing.
Replays the extension's declared default search_url with a test query and shows the redirect chain through quickengineswitch.com to the real search engine.
- curl
- python3
#!/bin/sh# Usage: ./verify_search_relay.sh "your test phrase"QUERY="${1:-test search phrase}"ENCODED=$(python3 -c "import urllib.parse,sys; print(urllib.parse.quote(sys.argv[1]))" "$QUERY")curl -sv -o /dev/null "https://quickengineswitch.com/ext/search?src=default&q=${ENCODED}" 2>&1 | grep -i '^< location\|^> GET\|^< HTTP'- 1Run ./verify_search_relay.sh "test phrase".
- 2Read the Location headers: the first hop stays on quickengineswitch.com.
- 3Compare the host/path to manifest.json's search_url.
What it can do
Permissions this extension asks for, as declared in version 0.1. Asking for a permission is not a finding on its own - it is what the extension can do if it chooses to.
Read and change your data on quickengineswitch.com
https://quickengineswitch.com/*
Store data in your browser
storage
Block and redirect the requests your browser makes
declarativeNetRequest
Where it sends data
Destinations our analysis observed Quick Engine Switch contacting. Sending data somewhere is not a finding on its own - an extension that syncs your settings has to talk to its own server - but it is where your data can go, and who else it goes to.
- quickengineswitch.com
Quick Engine Switch sends data to quickengineswitch.com. No other extension we have analysed sends data here.