Chrome Cookie Extractor

A TypeScript/Node.js tool to extract cookies from Chrome and Brave browsers and convert them to curl-compatible formats.

Features

🍪 Extract cookies from Chrome and Brave browsers
🔒 Decrypt encrypted cookies on macOS - Full AES-CBC decryption support!
📱 Support for multiple browser profiles
🌐 Cross-platform support (macOS, Windows, Linux)
📋 Multiple output formats:
- Netscape format (cookies.txt)
- curl header format
- JSON format
🎯 Domain filtering
🚀 Fast extraction even while Chrome is running
⚡ Complete Chrome v10/v11 cookie decryption using Keychain access

Installation

Global Installation (Recommended)

npm install -g chrome-cookie-extractor

After installation, you'll have access to two commands:

chrome-cookies - Extract cookies to files or formats
auth-curl - NEW! curl with automatic authentication

Local Installation

npm install chrome-cookie-extractor

Using npx (No Installation)

npx chrome-cookie-extractor --help
npx chrome-cookie-extractor auth-curl https://example.com

Usage

New: auth-curl - Authenticated curl

The easiest way to use this tool! auth-curl automatically extracts cookies for any domain and uses them with curl:

# Access any authenticated site with your Chrome session
auth-curl https://github.com/user/repo

# Get your Google account info  
auth-curl https://myaccount.google.com/profile

# API calls with authentication
auth-curl https://api.github.com/user

# POST requests with authentication
auth-curl https://api.example.com/data -X POST -d '{"key":"value"}' --json

# Save response to file
auth-curl https://private-site.com/data.json -o data.json

# Verbose output to see what's happening
auth-curl https://example.com -v

# Set curl timeouts (passed through to curl)
auth-curl https://example.com/slow --max-time 20 --connect-timeout 5

# Any flag auth-curl does not handle itself is forwarded straight to curl,
# so it works as a drop-in curl wrapper (e.g. -sL, --retry, --http2)
auth-curl -sL --retry 3 https://example.com

Passthrough: auth-curl forwards any unknown curl flag (in order, with its value) to the underlying curl invocation, on top of injecting your Chrome cookies and default headers. This lets curl-style commands and generated checkers (e.g. auth-curl --max-time 25 -sL "$URL") work unchanged.

Traditional: chrome-cookies

Basic Usage

# Extract all cookies to cookies.txt
chrome-cookies

# Extract cookies for a specific domain
chrome-cookies -d google.com

# List available browser profiles
chrome-cookies --list-profiles

Output Formats

# Save as Netscape format (default)
chrome-cookies -d example.com -o my-cookies.txt

# Output as curl header
chrome-cookies -d example.com --curl

# Output as JSON
chrome-cookies -d example.com --json

Advanced Usage

# Extract from specific profile
chrome-cookies -p "Profile 1" -d github.com

# Verbose output with detailed information
chrome-cookies -d example.com --verbose

# Combine with curl
COOKIES=$(chrome-cookies -d example.com --curl)
curl $COOKIES https://example.com/api

Command Line Options

auth-curl Options

Option	Description
`<url>`	URL to request (required)
`-v, --verbose`	Show detailed output including cookies found
`-o, --output <file>`	Write response to file instead of stdout
`-H, --header <header>`	Add custom header (can be used multiple times)
`-X, --request <method>`	HTTP method (GET, POST, etc.)
`-d, --data <data>`	HTTP POST data
`--json`	Send data as JSON and set content-type
`--follow-redirects`	Follow HTTP redirects
`--insecure`	Allow insecure SSL connections
`--max-time <seconds>`	Maximum time in seconds for the whole operation (passed through to curl)
`--connect-timeout <seconds>`	Maximum time in seconds for the connection phase (passed through to curl)

chrome-cookies Options

Option	Description
`-d, --domain <domain>`	Extract cookies for specific domain only
`-o, --output <file>`	Output file path (default: cookies.txt)
`-p, --profile <profile>`	Chrome profile name (Default, Profile 1, etc.)
`--curl`	Output in curl header format
`--json`	Output in JSON format
`--list-profiles`	List available Chrome/Brave profiles
`--verbose`	Verbose output with detailed information
`--help`	Show help information
`--version`	Show version number

Using with curl

Method 1: Using cookies.txt file

# Generate cookies file
chrome-cookies -d example.com

# Use with curl
curl -b cookies.txt https://example.com/api

Method 2: Direct header injection

# Get curl header format and use directly
COOKIES=$(chrome-cookies -d example.com --curl)
curl $COOKIES https://example.com/api

Method 3: One-liner

curl $(chrome-cookies -d example.com --curl) https://example.com/api

Browser Support

✅ Google Chrome
✅ Brave Browser
✅ Multiple profiles
✅ All platforms (macOS, Windows, Linux)

Platform-specific Notes

macOS Cookie Decryption

This tool now supports full decryption of Chrome's encrypted cookies on macOS:

✅ AES-CBC decryption with Keychain integration
✅ Chrome v10/v11 format support
✅ Automatic key derivation from system keychain
✅ Works with Chrome running - no need to close browser

Setup for macOS Decryption

Grant Keychain Access: The tool needs access to Chrome's encryption key stored in macOS Keychain
Terminal Permissions: Ensure your terminal has "Full Disk Access" in System Preferences > Security & Privacy
First Run: You may be prompted to allow keychain access - click "Always Allow"

macOS

Full encrypted cookie decryption support
Accesses Chrome Safe Storage key from Keychain automatically
Works with Chrome v10/v11 encryption format
No manual setup required after initial keychain permission

Windows

Supports standard Chrome cookie extraction
May require running as administrator for some profiles

Linux

Standard SQLite extraction
Works with most Chrome installations

Programmatic Usage

import { ChromeCookieExtractor } from 'chrome-cookie-extractor';

const extractor = new ChromeCookieExtractor();

// Get available profiles
const profiles = extractor.getProfiles();
console.log('Available profiles:', profiles);

// Extract cookies
const cookies = await extractor.extractCookies({
  domain: 'example.com',
  profiles: ['Default']
});

// Format output
const curlFormat = extractor.formatAsCurl(cookies);
const jsonFormat = extractor.formatAsJson(cookies);
const netscapeFormat = extractor.formatAsNetscape(cookies);

Security Considerations

⚠️ Important Security Notes:

Sensitive Data: Cookies may contain sensitive authentication tokens and personal data
Encrypted Cookies: On macOS, the tool may access your Keychain to decrypt cookies
File Permissions: Ensure cookie files are stored securely and not committed to version control
Browser State: For best results, close Chrome/Brave before extraction

Troubleshooting

No profiles found

Ensure Chrome or Brave is installed and has been run at least once
Check that browser profiles exist in standard locations
Use --list-profiles to see available profiles

Permission denied errors

On macOS: Grant Terminal/iTerm access to Full Disk Access in System Preferences
On Windows: Run as administrator if needed
On Linux: Check file permissions for Chrome profile directories

Encrypted cookies show as [ENCRYPTED]

macOS: This tool now fully decrypts Chrome cookies automatically
First time setup: Grant keychain access when prompted
Permissions: Ensure Terminal has "Full Disk Access" in System Preferences
If decryption still fails, check that Chrome Safe Storage is accessible in Keychain Access.app

Database locked errors

No longer required: Tool works even while Chrome is running
Uses direct database access with timeout handling
Automatically falls back to temporary copy method if needed

Examples

Real-world Authentication Example

# Extract Google authentication cookies
chrome-cookies -d google.com --curl

# Use with curl to access authenticated Google services
GOOGLE_COOKIES=$(chrome-cookies -d google.com --curl)
curl $GOOGLE_COOKIES "https://myaccount.google.com/profile"

# Extract GitHub cookies for API access
chrome-cookies -d github.com -o github-cookies.txt
curl -b github-cookies.txt "https://api.github.com/user"

Web Scraping with Python requests

import requests

# Extract cookies using the tool
cookies = subprocess.check_output(['chrome-cookies', '-d', 'example.com', '--json'])
cookie_dict = json.loads(cookies)

# Convert to requests format
session = requests.Session()
for cookie in cookie_dict:
    session.cookies.set(cookie['name'], cookie['value'], domain=cookie['domain'])

response = session.get('https://example.com/api')

Using with wget

# Generate cookies file
chrome-cookies -d example.com

# Use with wget
wget --load-cookies cookies.txt https://example.com/file.zip

Integration with scripts

#!/bin/bash

# Extract cookies for multiple domains
for domain in "github.com" "google.com" "stackoverflow.com"; do
    echo "Extracting cookies for $domain..."
    chrome-cookies -d "$domain" -o "${domain}.cookies.txt"
done

Building from Source

git clone https://github.com/pchuri/chrome-cookie-extractor
cd chrome-cookie-extractor

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Build the project
npm run build

# Run locally
npm start -- --help

# Create binary executables
npm run package

Contributing

Fork the repository
Create a feature branch
Make your changes
Add tests if applicable
Submit a pull request

License

MIT License - see LICENSE file for details

Changelog

v1.0.0

Initial TypeScript implementation
Support for Chrome and Brave browsers
Cross-platform compatibility
Multiple output formats
Full AES-CBC cookie decryption on macOS
Chrome v10/v11 encryption support
Works while Chrome is running
Complete Keychain integration
CLI interface with comprehensive options

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
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.github/workflows		.github/workflows
.husky		.husky
src		src
tests		tests
.commitlintrc.js		.commitlintrc.js
.eslintrc.json		.eslintrc.json
.gitignore		.gitignore
.npmignore		.npmignore
.releaserc.json		.releaserc.json
CHANGELOG.md		CHANGELOG.md
LICENSE		LICENSE
README.md		README.md
jest.config.js		jest.config.js
osv-scanner.toml		osv-scanner.toml
package-lock.json		package-lock.json
package.json		package.json
tsconfig.json		tsconfig.json

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