While these extensions are no longer usable in Chrome, other browsers can still run them. A third-party site [1] indicates about 16% or 45000 manifest v2 extensions remain as of today.
This sounds somewhat similar to the anecdote mentioned in the Mythos Preview System Card, which mentioned that the model broke out of a sandbox and emailed a researcher while they were eating a sandwich in a park [1].
Web browsers on game consoles have also been easy entrypoints for modding systems without using additional hardware.
For example, the Wii U browser has been the primary entrypoint for modding the Wii U for much of the console's lifespan [1] [2].
And the original Wii had some browser-based exploits as well later in its lifespan. For example, FlashHax [3], a 2017 exploit for the Flash player in the Wii Internet Channel, and str2hax [4], a 2018 exploit which took advantage of the fact that the EULA was HTML loaded over HTTP. I believe the exploits were primarily used to distribute a simple patcher that would change the server address for online play in games to point to Wiimmfi which was a replacement for Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection [5] [6]. Most other homebrew tools required an SD card, and most other entrypoints used an SD card as well.
Orion had re-implemented support for the browser extensions APIs in WebKit. Though WebKit more recently opened up its built-in addons support to third-party browsers that use it.
The article suggests Common Crawl as a replacement which probably doesn’t make sense on its own due to low update frequency (monthly) and somewhat limited crawl scope.
(Looks like the sentence following the suggestion addresses this somewhat.)
During mass layoffs, why haven't companies offered employees the opportunity to drop down to a four day work week? I'd think many would take the extra day off each week, even if it included a proportional reduction in pay.