How do I directly modify a Google Chrome Extension File? (.CRX) - google-chrome

Question

I'm not sure in which languages those extensions are, I think the are written in Html, Javascript or JSON. As far as I know they are "compressed" in a .CRX file.
It is possible to directly modify the html, js, json of a Chrome Extension (or whatever language they use)?

Answer 1

Installed Chrome extension directories are listed below:
Copy the folder of the extension you wish to modify. ( Named according to the extension ID, to find the ID of the extension, go to chrome://extensions/). Once copied, you have to remove the _metadata folder.
From chrome://extensions in Developer mode select Load unpacked extension... and select your copied extension folder, if it contains a subfolder this is named by the version, select this version folder where there is a manifest file, this file is necessary for Chrome.
Make your changes, then select reload and refresh the page for your extension to see your changes.
Chrome extension directories
Mac:
/Users/username/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/Default/Extensions
Windows 7:
C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Extensions
Windows XP:
C:\Documents and Settings\YourUserName\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default
Ubuntu 14.04:
~/.config/google-chrome/Default/Extensions/

Answer 2

I searched it in Google and I found this:
The Google Chrome Extension file type is CRX. It is essentially a compression format. So if you want to see what is behind an extension, the scripts and the code, just change the file-type from “CRX” to “ZIP” .
Unzip the file and you will get all the info you need. This way you can see the guts, learn how to write an extension yourself, or modify it for your own needs.
Then you can pack it back up with Chrome’s internal tools which automatically create the file back into CRX. Installing it just requires a click.

Answer 3

A signed CRX file has a header that will cause most/all unzippers to barf. This is not the easiest way to go about it, but here's how to do it from a bash command line.
The basic idea is to find where the original unsigned zipfile begins, then copy the CRX file to a zip file but exclude the CRX header.
hexdump -C the_extension.crx | more
Look in the output for the start of the zip file, which are the ASCII bytes "PK". In the sample I tried, the PK was at offset 0x132. (From reading the CRX spec, I think this number will vary from file to file because of different signature lengths.) That number is what we'll use in the next step.
dd if=the_extension.crx of=the_extension.zip bs=1 skip=0x132 (For the skip parameter, substitute the offset you found in the previous step.)
Now unzip the .zip that you just created.
Fiddle with the files in the unzipped directory, then either install the unsigned/unpacked extension into your Chrome installation, or else repackage it just as you would any other Chrome extension.
I'm sure that there is a more concise way to do this. Bash experts, please improve on my answer.

Answer 4

Note that some zip programs have trouble unzipping a CRX like sathish described - if this is the case, try using 7-Zip - http://www.7-zip.org/

Answer 5

I have read the other answers and found it important to note a few other things:
1.) For Mac users: When you click "Load unpacked extension...", the Library folder is by default hidden and (even if the Show Hidden files option is toggled on your Mac) it might not show up in Chrome's finder window.
2.) The sub folder containing the extension is a random alpha-numeric string named after the extension's ID, which can be found on Chrome's extension page if Developer flag is set to true. (Upper right hand checkbox on the extensions page)

Answer 6

(Already said) I found this out while making some Chrome themes (which are long gone now... :-P)
Chrome themes, extensions, etc. are just compressed files. Get 7-zip or WinRar to unzip it. Each extension/theme has a manifest.json file. Open the manifest.json file in notepad. Then, if you know the coding, modify the code. There will be some other files. If you look in the manifest file you might be able to figure out what the are for. Then, you can change everything...

Answer 7

.CRX files are like .ZIP files, just change the extension and right click > Extract Files and you are done.
Once you have extracted files --> modify them and add to zip and change extension back to .crx.
Other way around --> Open Chrome --> Settings --> Extensions --> Enable Developer Options --> Load unpacked Extension (modified extracted files folder) and then click pack extension.
Source

Answer 8

Now Chrome is multi-user so Extensions should be nested under the OS user profile then the Chrome user profile, My first Chrome user was called Profile 1, my Extensions path was C:\Users\ username \AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\ Profile 1 \Extensions\.
To find yours Navigate to chrome://version/ (I use about: out of laziness).
Notice the Profile Path and just append \Extensions\ and you have yours.
Hope this brings this info on this question up to date more.

Answer 9

It's possible to modify the code of .CRX extension, because it's a simple .zip archive. You can download extension, extract it's source code, modify it (test and debug it as it's on your side), and package back into .CRX file.
I googled out this tool to simply download .CRX extension and extract the source code and it worked for me: http://crxextractor.com
Everything it does is parses .CRX file format and extracts actual .zip containing the source code.

Answer 10

If you have installed the Portable version of Chrome, or have it installed in a custom directory - the extensions won't be available in directory referenced in above answers.
Try right-clicking on Chrome's shortcut & Check the "Target" directory. From there, navigate to one directory above and you should be able to see the User Data folder and then can use the answers mentioned above