Extension permissions

[bershanskiy]

Extension manifest contains multiple permissions that it does not need and which generate extra warnings during installation. If you are interested, I can make a PR to remove these.

• downloads (twice, for some reason)
  • Install warning: "Manage your downloads"
  • Alternative: initiate regular downloads from popup page context or by creating a new tab. No permissions required at all. Update: turns out, with this method Chrome automatically attempts to install CRX packages instead of just downloading them. This permission might indeed be necessary.
• Hot permissions *://clients2.google.com/service/update2/crx* and *://clients2.googleusercontent.com/crx/download/*
  • Install warning: "Read and change your data on..."
  • Alternative: these are not necessary if extension uses download method mentioned above.
• tabs
  • Install warning: "Read your browsing history"
  • Alternative: use activeTab permission which is granted when user activates extension (opens extension popup or presses a shortcut). This permission does not produce any warnings at all.

This extension can be rewritten to require no special permissions and to generate no warnings upon installation only downloads permission.

Edit: I implemented proposed ideas in this MV3 prototype and it works with only downloads permission and allows you to download extensions from Chrome Web Store and Edge Addons store.