Browserpass - native messaging host

This is a host application for browserpass browser extension providing it access to your password store. The communication is handled through Native Messaging API.

Table of Contents

• Installation
  • Install via package manager
  • Install manually
    • Install on Nix / NixOS
    • Install on Windows
    • Install on Windows through WSL
  • Configure browsers
    • Configure browsers on Windows
• Building the app
  • Build locally
  • Build using Docker
• Updates
• FAQ
  • Hints for configuring gpg
• Contributing

Installation

Install via package manager

The following operating systems provide a browserpass package that can be installed using a package manager:

• Arch Linux: browserpass
• NixOS: browserpass - also read Install on Nix / NixOS
• macOS: browserpass in a user-contributed tap amar1729/formulae

Once the package is installed, refer to the section Configure browsers.

If your OS is not listed above, proceed with the manual installation steps below.

Install manually

Download the latest Github release, choose either the source code archive (if you want to compile the app yourself) or an archive for your operating system (it contains a pre-built binary).

All release files are signed with a PGP key that is available on maximbaz.com, keybase.io and various OpenPGP key servers. First, import the public key using any of these commands:

$ curl https://maximbaz.com/pgp_keys.asc | gpg --import
$ curl https://keybase.io/maximbaz/pgp_keys.asc | gpg --import
$ gpg --recv-keys EB4F9E5A60D32232BB52150C12C87A28FEAC6B20

To verify the signature of a given file, use $ gpg --verify <file>.asc.

It should report:

gpg: Signature made ...
gpg:                using RSA key 8053EB88879A68CB4873D32B011FDC52DA839335
gpg: Good signature from "Maxim Baz <...>"
gpg:                 aka ...
Primary key fingerprint: EB4F 9E5A 60D3 2232 BB52  150C 12C8 7A28 FEAC 6B20
     Subkey fingerprint: 8053 EB88 879A 68CB 4873  D32B 011F DC52 DA83 9335

Unpack the archive. If you decided to compile the application yourself, refer to the Building the app section on how to do so. Once complete, continue with the steps below.

If you are on macOS, first install the necessary tools: brew install coreutils gnu-sed.

If you downloaded a release archive with pre-compiled binary, follow these steps to install the app:

# IMPORTANT: replace XXXX with OS name depending on the archive you downloaded, e.g. "linux64"
make BIN=browserpass-XXXX configure      # Configure the hosts json files
sudo make BIN=browserpass-XXXX install   # Install the app

In addition, both configure and install targets respect PREFIX, DESTDIR parameters if you want to customize the install location (e.g. to install to a $HOME dir to avoid using sudo).

For example, if you are on macOS, you probably want to install Browserpass in /usr/local/bin, therefore you need to run:

make BIN=browserpass-darwin64 PREFIX=/usr/local configure      # Configure the hosts json files
sudo make BIN=browserpass-darwin64 PREFIX=/usr/local install   # Install the app

If you compiled the app yourself, you can omit BIN parameter:

make configure      # Configure the hosts json files
sudo make install   # Install the app

Finally proceed to the Configure browsers section.

Install on Nix / NixOS

For a declarative NixOS installation, update your channel with sudo nix-channel --update, use the following to your /etc/nixos/configuration.nix and rebuild your system:

{ pkgs, ... }: {
  programs.browserpass.enable = true;
  environment.systemPackages = with pkgs; [
    # All of these browsers will work
    chromium firefox google-chrome vivaldi
    # firefox*-bin versions do *not* work with this. If you require such Firefox versions, use the stateful setup described below.
  ];
}

For a stateful Nix setup, update your channel, install Browserpass and link the necessary files with the Makefile (see Configure browsers section), but pass DESTDIR=~/.nix-profile:

$ nix-channel --update
$ nix-env -iA nixpkgs.browserpass # Or nix-env -iA nixos.browserpass on NixOS
$ DESTDIR=~/.nix-profile make -f ~/.nix-profile/lib/browserpass/Makefile <desired make goal>

Install on Windows

The Makefile currently does not support Windows, so instead of sudo make install you'd have to do a bit of a manual work.

First, copy the contents of the extracted browserpass-windows64 folder to a permanent location where you want Browserpass to be installed, for the sake of example let's suppose it is C:\Program Files\Browserpass\.

Then edit the hosts json files (in our example C:\Program Files\Browserpass\browser-files\*-host.json) and replace %%replace%% with a full path to browserpass-windows64.exe (in our example C:\\Program Files\\Browserpass\\browserpass-windows64.exe).

Finally proceed to the Configure browsers on Windows section.

Install on Windows through WSL

If you want to use WSL instead, follow Linux installation steps, then create %localappdata%\Browserpass\browserpass-wsl.bat with the following contents:

@echo off
bash -c /usr/bin/browserpass-linux64

Then edit the hosts json files (in our example C:\Program Files\Browserpass\browser-files\*-host.json) and replace %%replace%% with a full path to browserpass-wsl.bat you've just created.

Finally proceed to the Configure browsers on Windows section.

Remember to check Hints for configuring gpg on how to configure pinentry to unlock your PGP key.

Configure browsers

The following operating systems provide packages for certain browsers that can be installed using a package manager:

• Arch Linux: browserpass-chromium and browserpass-firefox
  • AUR: browserpass-chrome

If you installed a distro package above, you are done!

If something went wrong, or if there's no package for your OS and/or a browser of your choice, proceed with the steps below.

First, enter the directory with installed Browserpass, by default it is /usr/lib/browserpass/, but if you used PREFIX or DESTDIR when running make install, it might be different for you. For example, on macOS the directory is likely to be /usr/local/lib/browserpass/.

See below the list of available make goals to configure various browsers.

If you provided PREFIX and/or DESTDIR while running make install, remember that you must provide the same parameters, for example sudo make PREFIX=/usr/local hosts-chromium:

Command	Description
sudo make hosts-chromium	Configure browserpass for Chromium browser, system-wide
make hosts-chromium-user	Configure browserpass for Chromium browser, for the current user only
sudo make hosts-chrome	Configure browserpass for Google Chrome browser, system-wide
make hosts-chrome-user	Configure browserpass for Google Chrome browser, for the current user only
sudo make hosts-vivaldi	Configure browserpass for Vivaldi browser, system-wide
make hosts-vivaldi-user	Configure browserpass for Vivaldi browser, for the current user only
sudo make hosts-brave	Configure browserpass for Brave browser, system-wide
make hosts-brave-user	Configure browserpass for Brave browser, for the current user only
sudo make hosts-firefox	Configure browserpass for Firefox browser, system-wide
make hosts-firefox-user	Configure browserpass for Firefox browser, for the current user only

In addition, Chromium-based browsers support the following make goals:

Command	Description
sudo make policies-chromium	Automatically install browser extension from Web Store for Chromium browser, system-wide
make policies-chromium-user	Automatically install browser extension from Web Store for Chromium browser, for the current user only
sudo make policies-chrome	Automatically install browser extension from Web Store for Google Chrome browser, system-wide
make policies-chrome-user	Automatically install browser extension from Web Store for Google Chrome browser, for the current user only
sudo make policies-brave	Automatically install browser extension from Web Store for Brave browser, system-wide
make policies-brave-user	Automatically install browser extension from Web Store for Brave browser, for the current user only

Configure browsers on Windows

The Makefile currently does not support Windows, so instead of the make goals shown above you'd have to do a bit of a manual work.

Open regedit and create a browser-specific subkey, it can be under HKEY_CURRENT_USER (hkcu) or HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE (hklm) depending if you want to configure Browserpass only for your user or for all users respectively:

1. Google Chrome: hkcu:\Software\Google\Chrome\NativeMessagingHosts\com.github.browserpass.native
2. Firefox: hkcu:\Software\Mozilla\NativeMessagingHosts\com.github.browserpass.native

Inside this subkey create a new property called (Default) with the value of the full path to the browser-specific hosts json file, for example:

1. Google Chrome: C:\Program Files\Browserpass\browser-files\chromium-host.json
2. Firefox: C:\Program Files\Browserpass\browser-files\firefox-host.json

You can automate all of these steps by running the following commands in PowerShell:

# Google Chrome
New-Item -Path "hkcu:\Software\Google\Chrome\NativeMessagingHosts\com.github.browserpass.native" -force
New-ItemProperty -Path "hkcu:\Software\Google\Chrome\NativeMessagingHosts\com.github.browserpass.native" -Name "(Default)" -Value "C:\Program Files\Browserpass\browser-files\chromium-host.json"

# Firefox
New-Item -Path "hkcu:\Software\Mozilla\NativeMessagingHosts\com.github.browserpass.native" -force
New-ItemProperty -Path "hkcu:\Software\Mozilla\NativeMessagingHosts\com.github.browserpass.native" -Name "(Default)" -Value "C:\Program Files\Browserpass\browser-files\firefox-host.json"

For other browsers, please explore the registry to find the correct location, and peek into Makefile for inspiration.

Building the app

Build locally

Make sure you have the latest stable Go installed.

The following make goals are available (check Makefile for more details):

Command	Description
make or make all	Compile the app and run tests
make browserpass	Compile the app for your OS
make browserpass-linux64	Compile the app for Linux 64-bit
make browserpass-windows64	Compile the app for Windows 64-bit
make browserpass-darwin64	Compile the app for Mac OS X 64-bit
make browserpass-openbsd64	Compile the app for OpenBSD 64-bit
make browserpass-freebsd64	Compile the app for FreeBSD 64-bit
make test	Run tests

Build using Docker

First build the docker image using the following command in the project root:

docker build -t browserpass-native .

The entry point in the docker image is the make command. To run it:

docker run --rm -v "$(pwd)":/src browserpass-native

Specify make goal(s) as the last parameter, for example:

docker run --rm -v "$(pwd)":/src browserpass-native test

Refer to the list of available make goals above.

Updates

If you installed the app using a package manager for your OS, you will likely update it in the same way.

If you installed manually, repeat the steps in the Install manually section.

FAQ

Hints for configuring gpg

First make sure gpg and some pinentry are installed.

• on macOS many people succeeded with pinentry-mac
• on Windows WSL people succeded with pinentry-wsl-ps1

Make sure your pinentry program is configured in ~/.gnupg/gpg-agent.conf:

pinentry-program /full/path/to/pinentry

If Browserpass is unable to locate the proper gpg binary, try configuring a full path to your gpg in the browser extension settings or in .browserpass.json file in the root of your password store:

{
    "gpgPath": "/full/path/to/gpg"
}

Contributing

1. Fork the repo
2. Create your feature branch
   • git checkout -b my-new-feature
3. Commit your changes
   • git commit -am 'Add some feature'
4. Push the branch
   • git push origin my-new-feature
5. Create a new pull request