Browser Cookie Extraction (Windows)

September 8, 2026 · View on GitHub

Win-CodexBar can extract browser cookies for providers that use web authentication (Claude, Cursor, Kimi, and others). This is the Windows rewrite of upstream cookie/Keychain concepts: DPAPI + browser profiles, not macOS Keychain prompts.

Supported Browsers

BrowserEncryptionStatus
ChromeDPAPI + AES-256-GCM; modern profiles may use Chromium ABE (v20)⚠️ Automatic only when the needed cookies are not App-Bound
EdgeDPAPI + AES-256-GCM; modern profiles may use Chromium ABE (v20)⚠️ Automatic only when the needed cookies are not App-Bound
BraveDPAPI + AES-256-GCM; modern profiles may use Chromium ABE (v20)⚠️ Automatic only when the needed cookies are not App-Bound
FirefoxUnencrypted SQLite✅ Automatic

Chromium App-Bound Encryption (ABE) binds protected cookie keys to the browser installation. Win-CodexBar does not bypass that protection. If the selected Chromium profile stores the provider cookies as App-Bound v20 values, automatic import cannot decrypt them with the normal user DPAPI key. Use a manual Cookie header or Firefox instead. Chromium browser choices remain available because older or unmigrated profiles can still contain readable DPAPI/AES-GCM cookies.

How It Works

  1. CodexBar reads the browser's cookie database from its standard location
  2. For Chromium-based browsers, CodexBar can decrypt legacy DPAPI/AES-GCM cookies using the current user's credentials; App-Bound v20 cookies are intentionally not bypassed
  3. Only cookies for enabled providers are extracted (e.g., claude.ai, cursor.com)
  4. Cookies are stored in-memory and refreshed on each provider poll
  1. Open Settings → Providers tab
  2. Select the provider you want to configure
  3. In the provider detail pane, find the Browser Cookies section
  4. Choose your browser from the dropdown and click Import

Manual Cookies

If automatic extraction fails (for example, Chromium App-Bound Encryption is active, the browser database cannot be read, or CodexBar is running in WSL):

  1. Open your browser and navigate to the provider's website (e.g., claude.ai)
  2. Open DevTools (F12) → Network tab
  3. Refresh the page and click any request to the provider
  4. Copy the Cookie header value from Request Headers
  5. In CodexBar Settings → provider detail → Browser Cookies, paste the value

Troubleshooting

  • "Chromium App-Bound Encryption": Modern Chrome, Edge, Brave, and other Chromium-based profiles can protect cookies with ABE. Closing the browser does not remove ABE; use a manual Cookie header or Firefox for the same login
  • "Cookie decryption failed": Close the browser and retry if the cookie database itself is locked
  • Empty cookies: Make sure you're logged into the provider's web interface in that browser
  • WSL: Chromium DPAPI cookies cannot be decrypted from WSL. Use manual cookies or CLI-based auth instead