I found a GNOME extension through a Google search (using Chromium), and was very surprised that I could simply toggle the On/Off switch to have the website install a full GNOME extension on my computer without any other manual steps involved. (tested, this works with Firefox as well.) Granted, it does pop up a dialog box asking me to confirm installation, but ...
While this is great for ease of use and usability, aren't there security vulnerabilities with this? I would be interested in knowing how exactly this feature works, and whether I should be concerned about any "backdoors" that this might allow for hackers to easily install executables on my machine.
Are the extensions on the GNOME site vetted? Is there a way to tell whether extensions are safe or not?
Are the Chromium and Firefox browsers modified by GNOME in order to allow for this feature? Are there any other custom GNOME Chromium/Firefox changes that users should know about?
UPDATE: Having understood how this works, I now believe this is a really great feature especially for non-technical users, but it did alarm me a little when I first encountered it.