Brave-browser: [Desktop] Unable to install self-signed or third-party CRX extensions

[rushilsrivastava]

I have sufficiently checked the issues tracker and checked the Reddit group regarding my issue.

Description

It is impossible to install third-party CRX files. Installing self-signed CRX files is vital for testing while creating extensions. When trying to adding a .crx file after enabling Developer Mode, Brave tells the user it is not listed on the "Brave Web Store" (which I assume is the Chrome Web Store). A lot of extensions cannot be listed on the Chrome Web Store (i.e. doesn't meet TOS), and Developers who are testing extensions cannot develop on Brave.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Enable Developer mode by visiting brave://extensions.
2. Download a third-party self-signed .crx file, and drag and drop to brave://extensions.
3. Confirm that you would like to add the extension, and grant it any permissions necessary.

Actual result:

Expected result:

The extension should be allowed to enable, even if it isn't on the Chrome Web Store.

Reproduces how often:

Easily repeatable.

Brave version (brave://version info)

Brave | 0.57.18 Chromium: 71.0.3578.80 (Official Build) (64-bit)
-- | --
Revision | 2ac50e7249fbd55e6f517a28131605c9fb9fe897-refs/branch-heads/3578@{#860}
OS | Mac OS X

Reproducible on current release:

• Yes, reproduced on Release version and Beta versions.

Website problems only:

• Does the issue resolve itself when disabling Brave Shields? n/a
• Is the issue reproducible on the latest version of Chrome? no

Additional Information

Extension being tested: https://github.com/rushilsrivastava/OpenNews/releases

[Brave-Matt]

+1 from reddit:
https://www.reddit.com/r/brave_browser/comments/a542t2/just_downloaded_brave_trying_to_install_3rd_party/

[rushilsrivastava]

Yup, that's me on Reddit :)

[thisisespria]

Just to add to this, Brave Browser keeps rejecting the installation of Roboform which is listed on the Chrome Web Store. It flagged it as not being on the Brave web store as well.

[tomlowenthal]

@thisisespria — that sounds like a separate issue, which I'm not able to reproduce. Can you file a new issue with screenshots of what you're experiencing, and more detail?

[thisisespria]

@thisisespria — that sounds like a separate issue, which I'm not able to reproduce. Can you file a new issue with screenshots of what you're experiencing, and more detail?

It was a temporary problem, it looks like. After the extension updated, for some reason it began conflicting with Brave browser and kept getting marked as not tested by Brave and not being in the Brave web store. I was able to get around it by using developer mode and sideloading the extension but I've uninstalled and reinstalled from the web store and it works fine now.

[rushilsrivastava]

I guess this behavior is intentional according to this support document (Learn More).

The support document is very unclear about how a Developer should reupload their extension. I also find this decision to be problematic for developers who may want to test their own extensions out, and even for regular users using extensions that can't be added to the Chrome Web Store.

[Crimix]

Hope they will allow us to enable non web store extension, as long as they display a message to discourage the average user from doing it

[rushilsrivastava]

Is there any work around to this problem?

[Brave-Matt]

+1
https://community.brave.com/t/any-news-about-whitelist-for-extensions/76815

[kakolisgay]

Ran into this issue after updating to the latest version of brave. As far as I can tell the only way to fix this for effected users would be to patch install_verifier.cc or extension_service.cc to remove the nonstore checks. There used to be a flag you could pass to sideload however according to google forums that no longer exists

[Rob4226]

I recently started getting used to Brave and I really like it but it seems like non-chrome webstore extensions cannot be enabled, is this true? I downloaded the dev channel version as I do with chrome in order to be able to whitelist homemade extensions in the Windows registry. This would be a deal-breaker unfortunately so please tell me there is a way??

[insilications]

I hope this gets fixed.

[damendo]

Another +1 for this. Had to download Chrome again because a tool I'm using is distributed as a .crx :'(

[insilications]

@damendo exactly same situation here. I have to use a tool distributed as .crx

[CappieXL]

+1

Can anybody from team comment on whether this is intentional or a bug and whether there are plans to fix this or not?
There are arguments for both, so I'm just curious about what to expect

[aetonsi]

I used to circumvent this issue by white listing/forceinstall listing my extensions via policies in the registry (HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Chromium\ExtensionInstallForcelist / HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Chromium\ExtensionInstallWhitelist).

Now even that doesn't work...
Any news?

[rushilsrivastava]

Relinking my earlier comment on this issue:

https://github.com/brave/brave-browser/issues/5761#issuecomment-590795741

[pmuybae]

This punishes using any FOSS extensions that aren't on the chrome store since the only other option is to get the source and load it as a dev extension but that causes an annoying popup that the devs seem to think is wanted (#5063). This includes anything google disagree with, such as blocking paywalls (See the example OP supplied)

[aetonsi]

I used to circumvent this issue by white listing/forceinstall listing my extensions via policies in the registry (HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Chromium\ExtensionInstallForcelist / HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Chromium\ExtensionInstallWhitelist).

Now even that doesn't work...
Any news?

Tried with HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\BraveSoftware\Brave as reported here: https://github.com/brave/brave-browser/issues/5063#issuecomment-566688634 .
I can confirm that my custom extension it's working.

[PixelHir]

It's really horrendous how they say that brave "begins with giving you back power."
Please guys, listen to the community and stop making things harder for everyone

[tsumeone]

There are certain ad blocking extensions that Google doesn't allow on their store that have to be loaded this way and (for some reason) Brave refuses to give the user the choice to do so. I switched to another browser until this is fixed, but I won't hold my breath.

[greatwolf]

I was looking for a way to make a self-signed crx extension work in Brave. It looks like @aetonsi is right. I am able to get my extension working with GPO white-listing.

I'm posting this here in case others are trying to run a custom 3rd party .crx extension that's not from the chrome webstore and getting the above error when sideloading. You need to add the following registry key(datatype are all SZ string type):

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\BraveSoftware\Brave\ExtensionInstallWhitelist]
"1"="_<your .crx extension id here>_"
"2"="_<next .crx extension id here>_"
; etc...
; for example:
;"3"="npifoilcgoddgoagljbkagfmmafmphki"

Setup I tested this on, Win7 64-bit with Brave 1.3.113 Chromium: 80.0.3987.87 32-bit. This is actually Brave-portable.

[shivashranz]

I was looking for a way to make a self-signed crx extension work in Brave. It looks like @aetonsi is right. I am able to get my extension working with GPO white-listing.

I'm posting this here in case others are trying to run a custom 3rd party .crx extension that's not from the chrome webstore and getting the above error when sideloading. You need to add the following registry key(datatype are all SZ string type):

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\BraveSoftware\Brave\ExtensionInstallWhitelist]
"1"="_<your .crx extension id here>_"
"2"="_<next .crx extension id here>_"
; etc...
; for example:
;"3"="npifoilcgoddgoagljbkagfmmafmphki"

Setup I tested this on, Win7 64-bit with Brave 1.3.113 Chromium: 80.0.3987.87 32-bit. This is actually Brave-portable.

Hey, I'm using Brave Stable build on Win10 and the specific registry path is absent in my case. any idea on this?

[esjarc]

I am able to get my extension working with GPO white-listing.

Unfortunately this does not seem to work with non-Windows operating systems and the paths described in the support document from Google don't seem to exist in Brave for Linux.

This issue is actually the only reason why I am not using Brave on my devices (I use ungoogled-chromium instead). I am just not interested in software that is locking me into walled gardens (here: Chrome Web Store).
If someone is interested in extensions that are not working with Brave, here are two public non-Web-Store extensions: Chromium Web Store, chromium-cleaner

[stocks29]

I was able to install a 3rd party extension by dragging/dropping the crx file onto the page at brave://extensions, but now I see the warning This extension is not listed in the Web Store and may have been added without your knowledge. Learn more - I'm unable to enable the extension though. "Learn More" link takes me to https://support.brave.com/hc/en-us/articles/360017914832-Why-am-I-seeing-the-message-extensions-disabled-by-Brave-?hl=en-US