ExtGuard

Audit the VS Code extensions already installed on your machine. Entirely local.

Install: code --install-extension babstudios.extguard-security

Your extensions run with your full privileges

VS Code has no permission model. Any extension with a main entry point runs as ordinary Node.js with the reach of your user account: your files, your environment variables, your terminal, your network. There is nothing to over-request, because everything is already granted.

The median developer has around 80 installed and has audited none of them.

ExtGuard reads what is already on disk and tells you which extensions earned their access.

What it checks

Known-malicious IDs. Every installed extension is checked against 1,981 malicious records and 1,300 blocked publishers, aggregated from public threat feeds including Microsoft's own removed-packages list. The database ships inside the extension, so this check never touches the network.

Hardcoded secrets. AWS keys, GitHub and GitLab tokens, Slack webhooks and OAuth tokens, Stripe keys, Google API keys, npm tokens, private key blocks, and Azure DevOps PATs. A leaked publisher PAT is the one that matters most: it lets an attacker ship an update to somebody else's extension.

Capability signals. What each manifest reveals about reach, and what the shipped code actually calls: process spawning, dynamic evaluation, outbound connections, and reads of credential stores such as ~/.ssh and ~/.aws.

A risk score per extension, worst first, in a sidebar panel. Every finding cites the file and line that caused it.

See it in action

Installed extensions are sorted by risk, while clean extensions stay visibly green:

Findings identify the behavior and the exact shipped file and line:

High capability is explained separately from a security accusation:

It is built to not cry wolf

This is the part most scanners get wrong, so it is worth being specific.

An early build of ExtGuard produced 2,850 findings across 57 of 82 extensions on a clean machine. That is not a security tool, it is a tool you learn to ignore. The current build produces zero critical or high findings on the same machine.

Two decisions did most of that work.

Behaviour is not a verdict. Rules that look for process spawning or network calls run only on readable source, never on minified bundles, JSON schemas or documentation. Matching the word "request" inside a schema description is not a network call.

Broad capability is not a threat. Jupyter, the PowerShell extension, GitLens and AI coding agents execute code and read your codebase because that is their entire purpose. ExtGuard labels these as capability, with an explanation, and never as findings. A tool that opens by calling Microsoft's own PowerShell extension a threat has told you nothing except that it cannot be trusted.

What it is not

Not antivirus, and not a sandbox. It cannot stop an extension that is already running. It reports what is installed and what it can reach, so the decision is yours. A clean result means these specific checks found nothing, not that every extension is safe.

Privacy, which is the whole point

A tool that audits your editor for spyware cannot itself phone home.

• All scanning is local. Files are read in read-only mode and nothing is modified.
• No telemetry, no analytics, no account, and no network calls during a scan.
• The threat database is bundled, not fetched. The trade is complete privacy in exchange for data only as fresh as your last update, so ExtGuard shows you the snapshot date rather than implying its knowledge is current.
• If the database fails to load, ExtGuard says it could not check. It never reports a clean result it did not establish.
• One optional feature uses the network, off by default, and sends only extension IDs. See extguard.checkMarketplace below.

Full detail in SECURITY.md.

Compatibility

VS Code, Cursor, Windsurf, and any editor built on the VS Code API v1.75 or later.

Getting started

1. Click the shield icon in the activity bar.
2. Press refresh, or run ExtGuard: Scan Extensions from the command palette.
3. Extensions are listed worst first. Expand any one to see its findings with file and line.
4. Trust a publisher permanently under Settings, ExtGuard, Allowed Publishers.

Upgrading from the original 1.0.0 build

The permanent Marketplace identity is now babstudios.extguard-security. If babstudios.extguard is still installed, remove that legacy copy after installing this one. Version 1.0.2 detects it and links you directly to the old extension; the two builds use separate command and view IDs so the current scanner keeps working during migration.

Commands

Settings

Development

npm install
npm run compile
# Press F5 in VS Code to launch Extension Development Host
npm test        # Run unit tests

License

MIT