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dumpkeys

Export Chromium master keys as JSON for cross-host decryption.

dumpkeys exports the Chromium master keys as JSON, so you can decrypt the data on another machine with restore.

Note

dumpkeys is Chromium-only — Firefox and Safari have no exportable per-host key (Firefox re-derives one locally from key4.db; Safari reads the macOS Keychain).

Flags

FlagDefaultDescription
-b, --browserallTarget browser key for this OS, or all
-o, --output(stdout)Output file; defaults to standard output
--keychain-pw(none)macOS login password (visible in ps and shell history)
--keychain-pw-stdinfalseRead the macOS login password from the first line of stdin

Examples

bash
# Print the Chrome master key as JSON to stdout
hack-browser-data dumpkeys --browser chrome

# Write keys for every detected Chromium browser to a file
hack-browser-data dumpkeys --output keys.json

Warning

keys.json holds plaintext master keys — anyone with it and the matching profile data can decrypt protected fields. File output requests mode 0600 where the platform supports Unix permissions; verify the actual mode or ACL, and prefer streaming over leaving it on disk.

keys.json

The output is a single JSON object:

  • version and created_at — the keys.json format version ("2"; restore rejects any other) and the time the keys were exported (UTC).
  • host — where they came from: os, arch, and, when known, hostname and user.
  • vaults — one entry per Chromium user data directory, with its browser key, user_data_dir path, profiles, and master keys.

dumpkeys logs Exported keys for N vault(s) to stderr, so the JSON on stdout can be piped as is.

See Cross-Host Decryption for the full origin → analyst workflow, including the SSH pipe.