ChromeDriver 78: Cannot use CRX format extensions anymore

[mr.hud...@gmail.com]

Since updating to ChromeDriver 78.0.3904.70, I am no longer able to run any tests that add Browser extensions to Chrome Sessions. 

With ChromeDriver 77 this used to work fine. This still works fine with Chrome 78 + Chromedriver 77

System.setProperty("webdriver.chrome.driver", "./Drivers/Windows/chromedriver.exe");

    options.addExtensions(new File("Path_to_extension/ModHeader_v2.4.1.crx"));

    driver = new ChromeDriver(options);
}

Now with ChromeDriver 78.0.3904.70 + Chrome 78

I get the following callstack

Starting ChromeDriver 78.0.3904.70 (edb9c9f3de0247fd912a77b7f6cae7447f6d3ad5-refs/branch-heads/3904@{#800}) on port 35182
Only local connections are allowed.
Please protect ports used by ChromeDriver and related test frameworks to prevent access by malicious code.

org.openqa.selenium.WebDriverException: unknown error: cannot process extension #1
from unknown error: CRX verification failed: 3

Have tried a few different Extensions.

I saw mention that CRX is deprecated in Chrome 78? Has anyone successfully tried CRX3 extension Extensions with chrome78? This is a big step back and need to research how to repackage these extensions without source files

Have also tried

options.addExtensions("--load-extension=Path_to_extension/ModHeader_v2.4.1.crx");

Which also throws an error

Basically anyone else have this issue? or Anyone able to get a work around for this? 

My only work around currently is Chrome 78 + Chromedriver 77

Thanks

[T Crichton]

We include tests to load CRX3 extensions for ChromeDriver, so this is a feature that should work. Other users have reported success after repackaging their extensions.

Have you seen the information here: https://www.chromium.org/crx2-deprecation

One of the links includes instructions on repackaging the extension: https://developer.chrome.com/extensions/linux_hosting#packaging

The first link also clarifies why this is now an issue: 

• M78 (October 2019)

• The ExtensionAllowInsecureUpdates policy will be ignored.

• Chrome will no longer install or update to extensions packaged with CRX2 format.

• All extensions must be packaged with CRX3 format.

The error you are seeing "CRX verification failed: 3" is used when the format is incorrect. Specifically this error means that the header of the crx could not be parsed successfully. We will be improving this message in version 80.