VSXSentry Guard

A VS Code extension that auto-blocks and removes extensions listed in the VSXSentry malicious & risky feeds.

Source code: github.com/vsxsentry/vsxsentry-guard

On the VSCode Marketplace https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=mthcht.vsxsentry-guard

Behaviour

• Malicious feed - enforced silently. Every installed extension whose ID matches the feed is uninstalled (or disabled / warned, per vsxSentry.action) on every check, regardless of severity or category. No prompt.
• Risky feed - opt-in (vsxSentry.risky.enabled: true). When enabled, matched extensions go through a QuickPick review where you can uncheck any you want to keep (e.g. you actually use Copilot or Remote-SSH). Kept IDs are remembered so you aren't re-prompted.

Feed shape (May 2026 snapshot)

Feed	Entries	Severities	Categories
malicious	1,265	critical 469, high 661, medium 120, low 15	malware, impersonation, untrustworthy, spam, copyright-violation, owner-request, impersonation-malware, spam-malware
risky	72	high 14, medium 51, low 7	high = Roo Code, Cline, Code Runner, Live Share, Remote-SSH, ngrok, Tailscale, Vault, etc. medium = Copilot, Tabnine, Continue, AWS Toolkit, Docker, Kubernetes, etc.

The extension also writes blocked IDs into extensions.allowed so VS Code's own install gate refuses future installs - using the documented { "*": true, "id": false } blocklist pattern, and merging safely with any existing user config.

How protection works

VSXSentry Guard applies two layers of protection:

1. Block at install time. Every malicious extension ID from the feed is written to your extensions.allowed setting using the { "*": true, "id": false } pattern. VS Code's own install gate then refuses to install any of those IDs - this is real prevention, enforced by VS Code itself. Already-installed matches are also disabled by VS Code as soon as the setting is written.
2. Detect and uninstall at runtime. On every check (startup, on-demand, every N hours, and on the extensions.onDidChange event), the extension walks every installed extension and uninstalls any that match the feed.

The two layers cover each other: the settings write prevents new installs even when the extension isn't running, and the runtime check catches anything that slipped in between feed updates.

Edge cases worth knowing about

• Brand-new threats not yet in the feed are not blocked until the feed is updated and the extension re-checks (default: every 6 hours, configurable). For freshly-listed malware, there's a window between the feed update and your next check where a manual install could succeed; the extension will then uninstall it on the next check.
• If extensions.allowed is managed by a system policy (Group Policy on Windows, .mobileconfig on macOS, /etc/vscode/policy.json on Linux), the policy is authoritative and the extension won't try to write to the setting. The runtime detect-and-uninstall still works.
• VS Code 1.96 is required for the install-time block (when extensions.allowed was added). On older versions, only the runtime detect-and-uninstall layer is active.

Configuration

Setting	Default	Notes
vsxSentry.malicious.feedUrl	VSXSentry malicious CSV
vsxSentry.risky.enabled	false	Opt-in for risky feed
vsxSentry.risky.feedUrl	VSXSentry risky CSV
vsxSentry.risky.severities	["high"]	Subset of high, medium, low
vsxSentry.risky.categories	["*"]	e.g. ["risky-tunnel", "risky-remote-access"]
vsxSentry.action	"remove"	remove / disable / warn
vsxSentry.applyToAllowedSetting	true	Write to extensions.allowed
vsxSentry.updateIntervalHours	6	Background re-check interval
vsxSentry.notifyOnNewEntries	true	Toast when feed grows

Commands

• VSXSentry: Check feeds now - manual run
• VSXSentry: Review pending entries - same; surfaces the risky QuickPick
• VSXSentry: Show last report - webview with removed / kept / failed entries
• VSXSentry: Clear user overrides - forget which risky extensions you chose to keep

Build

npm install
npm run compile

Then F5 in VS Code (Extension Development Host) to run.