PSA: DNR rules will apply to extension initiated main frame requests

[Oliver Dunk]

Hi all,

Starting in Chrome 134, Declarative Net Request rules will apply to main frame requests for web resources initiated by extensions.

This includes:

• Clicking a link to a web page on a chrome-extension:// page, including a new tab page override
• Using the `window.open` API within an extension, or `chrome.tabs.create` with `openerTabId` set to a tab containing an extension page
• Calls to the `chrome.tabs.update` API

This is the case even if the rules are from an extension other than the one initiating the request.

Generally, extensions are not able to act on requests made by other extensions. However, this is a case where it is desirable for the request to behave as if it was initiated by a user.

This matches the behavior of the `chrome.webRequest` API and resolves https://issues.chromium.org/382670035 - thanks to wOxxOm for the report.

Thanks,
Oliver on behalf of Chrome Extensions DevRel

[woxxom]

To add more context, this will match the way DNR was working before Chrome 128 introduced the regression half a year ago.

[Uladzimir Yankovich]

To be clear, will this change affect how DNR works for sub-frames (iFrames)?

[woxxom]

No. The main_frame navigation is about the tab's main document. I guess this inherently confusing term comes from the sources of chromium where everything is a frame technically.

[Uladzimir Yankovich]

Thanks a lot!

--

Uladzimir Yankovich.