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

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

[esjarc]

@bsclifton Are you sure that Brave is not disabling this on purpose? If I am right with my assumption that the command line switch --extensions-install-verification=enforce disables all extensions from sources other than the Chrome Web Store, then this is one of the settings you explicitly enable in one of your patches:

  // Setting these to default values in Chromium to maintain parity
  // See: ChromeContentVerifierDelegate::GetDefaultMode for ContentVerification
  // See: GetStatus in install_verifier.cc for InstallVerification
  command_line.AppendSwitchASCII(
      switches::kExtensionContentVerification,
      switches::kExtensionContentVerificationEnforceStrict);
  command_line.AppendSwitchASCII(switches::kExtensionsInstallVerification,
                                 "enforce");

Other Chromium-based browsers like Chromium (from the Debian repository), Vivaldi and Kiwi Browser don’t disable sideloaded extensions and I have only ever experienced this issue with Brave. The default startup parameter list of Vivaldi is quite a bit shorter than the one Brave uses and the extensions-install-verification switch is not part of Vivaldi’s parameter list: --new-window --flag-switches-begin --flag-switches-end --origin-trial-disabled-features=SecurePaymentConfirmation --save-page-as-mhtml

EDIT: The extensions-install-verification parameter apparently got added in Brave 0.68. So I decided to test Brave 0.67.125 against Brave 0.68.131 (both were stable releases) and I can now confirm that extension sideloading broke with Brave 0.68 when this commit got merged into the stable branch.

[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.