Where does metamask store the wallet seed? (file path)

Question

I have a Windows installation that cannot be booted anymore.

I'd like to copy the file containing the Metamask wallet seed to another machine and have that Metamask installation use it.

The same Metamask accounts were installed on both Firefox and Chrome on that Windows installation.

Does anyone know where the Metamask plugin stores its keys or wallet seed?

(I do not have the wallet recovery phrase, I do have the password)

Edit: I put together a python script that can extract the vault data from the Firefox data files: https://github.com/JesseBusman/FirefoxMetamaskWalletSeedRecovery Read the code. Don't run it if you don't understand it.

Answer 1

If you were using the Google Chrome browser in Windows 10, you should be able to find the location of the Vault by going to this folder location (you need to be able to see the hidden files):

C:\Users\USER_NAME\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Local Extension Settings\nkbihfbeogaeaoehlefnkodbefgpgknn

In that folder you'll see a file called 000003 (or something like that), open that file with a text editor or code editor software like Atom (https://atom.io/).

In the text editor search for the word "vault" and copy this part that looks like the one pasted below:

{"vault":"{\"data\":\"wwpXXtFCqZkYsWfeEwItZjJ0Cc7mRVjG47Dqh+ztL1PiCG6Izhg+zG0mM+H2ykyjz3X0RNhAE6IVsWFZamcZ47B4sVi4SvUxrMhARm5L3yHPxr3UsyGrOXmthyVMgEGmjwlmnFCNd2nMZ2o8/sRMra8FupurqevnBv57FiYpEEs7gPpFHv6587aL44MmKD8Snv4JLFqiqmlK82Waq5F+Iv9mw2sFVAL9mgZBSgFgbWdB3TsKVB2k\",\"iv\":\"rkUQlNcGTxBE0My7a/bCXw==\",\"salt\":\"HcKyNfGzaRALRQ0DlKgcIe5Uk30iI/M//oG6w8vX8Nk=\"}"}

Remove the two parts in bold. Now use the Search and Replace feature of the editor to change all the \" to "

You would now have something like this:

{"data":"wwpXXtFCqZkYsWfeEwItZjJ0Cc7mRVjG47Dqh+ztL1PiCG6Izhg+zG0mM+H2ykyjz3X0RNhAE6IVsWFZamcZ47B4sVi4SvUxrMhARm5L3yHPxr3UsyGrOXmthyVMgEGmjwlmnFCNd2nMZ2o8/sRMra8FupurqevnBv57FiYpEEs7gPpFHv6587aL44MmKD8Snv4JLFqiqmlK82Waq5F+Iv9mw2sFVAL9mgZBSgFgbWdB3TsKVB2k","iv":"rkUQlNcGTxBE0My7a/bCXw==","salt":"HcKyNfGzaRALRQ0DlKgcIe5Uk30iI/M//oG6w8vX8Nk="}

You can now go to the Vault Decryptor https://metamask.github.io/vault-decryptor/ and paste that in the textfield there, enter the password you set for the extension when you created your MetaMask wallet. You should be able to see your seed phrase and any manually imported private key below if you click the Decrypt button.

Answer 2

You have to find metamask chrome-extension local storage file, you can find relevant info here: https://github.com/MetaMask/metamask-extension/issues/2749 For windows I think it is : %AppData%\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Local Storage

and then use vault decryptor tool to get seed back.

Answer 3

As for Firefox on the Mac, this is what I've found so far:

1. You type about:support as a URL, and can find some application basics, in which you locate the Profile Folder, which would lead you to a path like this:

   /Users/yourusername/Library/Application Support/Firefox/Profiles/e1609rfy.default-release

2. To locate the storage of the extensions go inside here:

   /Users/yourusername/Library/Application Support/Firefox/Profiles/e1609rfy.default-release/storage/default

and you will find some folders whose name starts with moz-extension+++. To know which one we want we can type this in the browser: about:debugging#/runtime/this-firefox, which will give us info about the internal UUID of the MetaMask extension.

3. So, inside this path:

   /Users/yourusername/Library/Application Support/Firefox/Profiles/e1609rfy.default-release/storage/default/moz-extension+++f7cb631f-2aa4-3b46-a3aa-403bad620ed2^userContextId=4294967295/

you can just find a subfolder called "idb", and inside that you find a file with an .sqlite extension and another subfolder which is likely empty.

I guess that the .sqlite file is the one we're after, because if I close Firefox and I remove it, my metamask loses the wallet and asks me if I want to create a new one or import one.

Documentation about this kind of files seem to be here: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/IndexedDB_API or https://stackoverflow.com/questions/54920939/parsing-fb-puritys-firefox-idb-indexed-database-api-object-data-blob-from-lin . I haven't investigated further, please expand this answer or create a new answer copy+pasting this content and amplifying it, I don't mind.