Chrome extension: loading a hidden page (without iframe)

Question

Is there a way to load a page, hidden from the user?

I can\'t use an iframe in a background page, because the page has frame-busting techniques.

Answer 1

I'm afraid that you don't have any other option than inserting the iframe anyway. To bust the iframe buster, you can employ the following techniques:

• If the iframe is blocked by the X-Frames-Option: DENY, just remove the header using the webRequest API - see Getting around X-Frame-Options DENY in a Chrome extension?.

• If the frame buster uses something like

  if (top !== self) {
      top.location.href = location.href;
  }
  

  Then block the scripted navigation by set the sandbox attribute on the iframe:

  var frame = document.createElement('iframe');
  frame.sandbox = 'allow-scripts';
  frame.src = 'data:text/html,';
  document.body.appendChild(frame);
  

  Navigation will be blocked without throwing any errors. The following message is logged to the console though:

  Unsafe JavaScript attempt to initiate navigation for frame with URL '(...URL of top page...)' from frame with URL '(....URL of frame..)'. The frame attempting navigation of the top-level window is sandboxed, but the 'allow-top-navigation' flag is not set.

These methods will always work, unless:

• The page contains .
• The frame busting script is implemented as if (top === self) { /* run code*/ }

In these cases, you have no other option than opening a new tab, read its content, then close it. See chrome.tabs.create and chrome.tabs.remove.