download-crx.pl [--zip|-z] <extension id or extension URL> […]
download-crx.pl [--extract|-x] <file> […]
This little helper tool downloads .crx files from the Google Chrome
Webstore from the commandline
and optionally dumps the contained ZIP archive (i.e. strips the CRX
binary headers).
Supported are the version 2 and version 3 of the CRX file format.
It was written for the purpose of downloading Google Chrome Extensions outside the browser and making it available in a format easy to handle for forensic analyses.
The script requires one or more parameters, which can be either:
- An extension ID,
- A Google Chrome Webstore Extension URL,
- A local file in CRX format.
If given an extension ID or a Google Chrome Webstore Extension URL, it will fetch that extension's CRX file from the Google Chrome Webstore.
If given an existing local file, it will only dump the contained ZIP archive.
-
-z,--zip: Also dump the contained ZIP archive. -
-x,--extract: Take the parameter as file name of a CRX format file and dump its contained ZIP archive. (This is only necessary if the file name also looks like an extension ID. Otherwise the tool will detect existing files itself.)
This tool is written in (modern) Perl and only requires …
-
a single Perl module as dependency (Mojolicious) and …
-
at least Perl 5.16 (a requirement of the current version of Mojolicious as of this writing).
-
https://github.com/acvetkov/download-crx for the general approach and download URLs. (To avoid any license issues, the same license as this project has been chosen even though only the contents of three variables and a general idea has been taken from its code.)
-
https://www.dre.vanderbilt.edu/~schmidt/android/android-4.0/external/chromium/chrome/common/extensions/docs/crx.html for the description of the CRX v2 file format.
-
https://github.com/ahwayakchih/crx3/blob/master/lib/crx3.proto for the description of the CRX v3 file format.
This software was written by Axel Beckert axel@ethz.ch.
2022 Axel Beckert
2022 ETH Zürich IT Security Center
Permission to use, copy, modify, and/or distribute this software for any purpose with or without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above copyright notice and this permission notice appear in all copies.
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE AUTHOR DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES WITH REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.
(This is the ISC License.)