Paywall Bitch

README.md

Original Source

This extension modifies the referrer and blocks tracking cookies for any site listed in the manifest.

Changes

• README
• SeattleTimes
• Name

background.js

/*
  Thank You Isoroku Yamamoto
  http://elaineou.com/2016/02/19/how-to-use-chrome-extensions-to-bypass-paywalls/
  Try to block all cookies if possible.
  Might need to put forbes back into allowed cookies depending on adblocker settings
*/

var ALLOW_COOKIES = ["nytimes", "ft.com"]

function changeRefer(details) {
  console.log(details);

  foundReferer = false;
  foundUA = false

  var reqHeaders = details.requestHeaders.filter(function(header) {

    // block cookies by default
    if (header.name !== "Cookie") {
      return header;
    } 

    allowHeader = ALLOW_COOKIES.map(function(url) {
      if (details.url.includes(url)) {
        return true;
      }
      return false;
    });
    if (allowHeader.reduce(function(a, b) { return a || b}, false)) { return header; }

  }).map(function(header) {
    
    if (header.name === "Referer") {
      header.value = "https://www.google.com/";
      foundReferer = true;
    }
    if (header.name === "User-Agent") {
      header.value = "Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Googlebot/2.1; +http://www.google.com/bot.html)";
      foundUA = true;
    }
    return header;
  })
  
  // append referer
  if (!foundReferer) {
    reqHeaders.push({
      "name": "Referer",
      "value": "https://www.google.com/"
    })
  }
  if (!foundUA) {
    reqHeaders.push({
      "name": "User-Agent",
      "value": "Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Googlebot/2.1; +http://www.google.com/bot.html)"
    })
  }
  console.log(reqHeaders);
  return {requestHeaders: reqHeaders};
}

function blockCookies(details) {
  for (var i = 0; i < details.responseHeaders.length; ++i) {
    if (details.responseHeaders[i].name === "Set-Cookie") {
      details.responseHeaders.splice(i, 1);
    }
  }
  return {responseHeaders: details.responseHeaders};
}

chrome.webRequest.onBeforeSendHeaders.addListener(changeRefer, {
  urls: ["<all_urls>"],
  types: ["main_frame"],
}, ["requestHeaders", "blocking"]);

chrome.webRequest.onHeadersReceived.addListener(blockCookies, {
  urls: ["<all_urls>"],
  types: ["main_frame"],
}, ["responseHeaders", "blocking"]);

manifest.json

{
  "name": "Paywall Bitch Chrome Extension",
  "version": "0.1",
  "description": "Paywall Bitch",
  "permissions": ["webRequest", "webRequestBlocking",
                  "http://ftalphaville.ft.com/*",
                  "http://www.ft.com/*",
                  "http://blogs.ft.com/*",
                  "http://www.glassdoor.com/*",
                  "https://www.glassdoor.com/*",
                  "http://blogs.wsj.com/*",
                  "http://www.wsj.com/*",
                  "https://www.wsj.com/*",
                  "http://www.economist.com/*",
                  "http://www.nytimes.com/*",
                  "http://*.blogs.nytimes.com/*",
                  "https://hbr.org/*",
                  "http://www.newyorker.com/*",
                  "http://www.forbes.com/*",
                  "http://online.barrons.com/*",
                  "http://www.barrons.com/*",
                  "http://www.investingdaily.com/*",
                  "http://realmoney.thestreet.com/*",
                  "http://www.washingtonpost.com/*",
                  "http://www.seattletimes.com/*",
                  "https://www.seattletimes.com/*"
                  ],
  "background": {
    "scripts": ["background.js"]
  },
  "manifest_version": 2
}