HackBrowserData
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Getting Started

From download to your first decrypted export in about a minute.

New to HackBrowserData? This page takes you from zero to your first decrypted export: download the self-contained binary for your platform, run one command, and read the results.

1. Download

Grab the latest release(opens in a new tab) for your operating system and unpack it — the binary is self-contained, with nothing to install. On macOS and Linux you’ll need to make it executable (and on macOS clear the Gatekeeper quarantine flag); for the exact commands, package managers, and building from source, see Installation.

2. Run

From a terminal in the same directory as the binary, a bare hack-browser-data runs the default dump command against every detected browser and category:

terminal
hack-browser-data

When it finishes, it lists each file it wrote to ./results, then prints a summary table with one row per browser, profile, and category. A run limited to Chrome passwords and cookies looks like this:

terminal
$ hack-browser-data dump --browser chrome --category password,cookie
[INF] Extracting Chrome...

[INF] Exported to results/
[INF]   password.json            101 entries
[INF]   cookie.json              2817 entries
Browser  Profile  Category  Result  Records  Detail
chrome   Default  password  ok      101
chrome   Default  cookie    ok      2817

A partial or error row tells you what was not recovered and why; see the run summary for every result value.

Tip

Not sure what’s installed? Run hack-browser-data list first — it detects browsers and profiles without touching the Keychain. The table uses display names; canonical --browser keys are listed under Supported Browsers.

To scope a run down — which is also how you avoid exporting sensitive data — pass --browser and --category:

terminal
# Just Chrome cookies
hack-browser-data dump --browser chrome --category cookie

dump is the default command, so hack-browser-data dump … and hack-browser-data … are equivalent.

3. Read the output

Results are written to ./results, one file per non-empty data category (json by default), aggregated across profiles:

text
results/
  cookie.json
  history.json
  password.json

For the full output structure and per-format schema, see Output & Data Formats.

Warning

With no flags, the default scope (--category all) exports everything — including passwords, cookies, and credit cards. Use HackBrowserData only on systems and accounts you own or are permitted to assess (see About), and narrow it with --category when you don’t need sensitive data.

Platform gotchas

  • macOS — the tool asks for the current login password when a selected browser needs Keychain access; Safari also needs Full Disk Access, and Safari passwords may fail to export on macOS 26.4 or later.
  • Windows — decrypting Chrome 127+ v20 cookies needs the amd64 App-Bound Encryption build.
  • Linux — v10 works without a keyring; v11 needs an accessible D-Bus Secret Service, and Flatpak v12 is not supported yet.

Next steps