Simon Willison (@simon@simonwillison.net)
fedi.simonwillison.net
It turns out Google Chrome ships a default, hidden extension that allows code on `*.google.com` access to private APIs, including your current CPU usage You can test it out by pasting the following into your Chrome DevTools console on any Google page: chrome.runtime.sendMessage( "nkeimhogjdpnpccoofpliimaahmaaome", { method: "cpu.getInfo" }, (response) => { console.log(JSON.stringify(response, null, 2)); }, ); More notes here: https://simonwillison.net/2024/Jul/9/hangout_servicesthunkjs/
      • hendrikEnglish
        1•10 months ago

        executing that command from the post returns the following on my Chromium:

        VM68:1 Uncaught TypeError: Cannot read properties of undefined (reading 'sendMessage')
    at [HTML_REMOVED]:1:16
(anonymous) @ VM68:1
        • wanderingmagusEnglish
          3•10 months ago

          It turns out Google Chrome (via Chromium) includes a default extension which makes extra services available to code running on the *.google.com domains - tweeted about today by Luca Casonato, but the code has been there in the public repo since October 2013 as far as I can tell.

          It looks like it’s a way to let Google Hangouts (or presumably its modern predecessors) get additional information from the browser, including the current load on the user’s CPU. Update: On Hacker News a Googler confirms that the Google Meet “troubleshooting” feature uses this to review CPU utilization

          The code doesn’t do anything on non-Google domains.

          Maybe it’s because you tried it on a non Google site? Idk.

          • hendrik
            3•10 months ago

            Hehe, I read that sentence, tried it on google.com

            But forget what I said. I have the ungoogled variant of Chromium installed. No wonder that’s not in there…