"Glic Jack" — Chrome Vulnerability Let Malicious Extensions Hijack Gemini Panel and Access Your Camera, Files, and Mic

Chrome's Gemini side panel uses a special chrome://glic URL that loads the Gemini web app inside a WebView component. Google added Gemini integration to Chrome in September 2025. The panel is not just a chatbot — it is tightly integrated into the browser and can grab screenshots, read local files, and turn on your camera or microphone to automate tasks. The flaw arose from a simple oversight: Chrome engineers failed to include the chrome://glic WebView in the blocklist that prevents extensions from intercepting privileged browser components. That missing entry meant that an attacker using Chrome's declarativeNetRequest API — a fairly standard extension permission — could inject JavaScript code directly into the Gemini panel and gain access to everything Gemini was authorized to do. The attack was dubbed Glic Jack — short for Gemini Live in Chrome hijack.

In an enterprise environment, a malicious extension gaining access to the cameras, microphones, and local files of workers is a serious organizational risk. The attack vector is deceptively simple — a user installs what appears to be a harmless extension, and that extension quietly inherits Gemini's system-level access. The Gemini panel could also be made to display phishing content inside what users see as a trusted browser component, making those attacks far more convincing than injecting content into a normal web page. In workplaces where browser extensions are routinely installed with limited review, a single socially engineered installation could create an internal foothold inside a trusted browser context. The broader warning from the security community: the more power you give software in the name of convenience, the more carefully you need to guard who else might access that power.