Answered Nov 27, 2020 · 2 votes
I used WinMerge for comparing these two standalone Chrome exes, version 86.0.4240.111 - 64 bits and 87.0.4280.66 - 64 bits, respectively ChromeStandaloneSetup64_28-10-2020_14.24.03_valid_Copy_old_version.exe (downloaded from https://dl.google.com/chrome/install/ChromeStandaloneSetup64.exe - broken exe aka missing the download URL tags within the exe) and ChromeStandaloneSetup64_valid_Copy_latest_version.exe (downloaded from https://www.google.com/chrome/?standalone=1&platform=win64 - valid exe aka exe that has the download URL tags within it).
As as a comparison, here's a tagged download URL:
https://dl.google.com/tag/s/appguid%3D%7B8A69D345-D564-463C-AFF1-A69D9E530F96%7D%26iid%3D%7B04A7785F-B8A2-B4AA-7A45-17861EB0DE70%7D%26lang%3Dro%26browser%3D4%26usagestats%3D1%26appname%3DGoogle%2520Chrome%26needsadmin%3Dprefers%26ap%3Dx64-stable-statsdef_1%26installdataindex%3Ddefaultbrowser/chrome/install/ChromeStandaloneSetup64.exe
and here is an untagged download URL:
https://dl.google.com/chrome/install/ChromeStandaloneSetup64.exe
While in WinMerge, I've searched for "&lang=ro&browser" in ChromeStandaloneSetup64_valid_Copy_latest_version.exe (the file to the right), then I went to Edit > Select Line Difference (F4), then to Merge > Copy to Left. Next, I went to File > Save As > Save Left As...
I then ran the resulting exe (patched exe, having version 86.0.4240.111 64 bits) in a fresh Windows 7 virtual machine (VM), and this time it installed correctly. For testing purposes, I turned off the network, and, when going to the 3 dotted menu in Chrome > Help > About Chrome, indeed, Chrome was the old version. After that, I turned on network and it had been updating to the latest version, 87.0.4280.66 64 bits, running with no problems.
Even though ChromeStandaloneSetup64_valid_Copy_latest_version.exe (valid exe) came with a Zone Identifier Alternate Data Stream (ADS), unlike the broken exe, the resulting exe coming out the broken exe, lacking ADS, it ran perfectly fine in the VM. Regarding ADS, I downloaded the same valid Chrome exe twice (87.0.4280.66 64 bits) and I noticed the ADS had the same exact value.
I also did additional tests and I've noticed if the resulting exe is lacking the appguid and iid fields, it won't install.
Another thing I did, it was messing around with the values in the respective fields, so I made the appguid and iid fields look like this:
appguid={00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000}&iid={00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000}
, which turned out to make the executable not install, getting Error code: 0x80070057.
Once I was done messing around with the exes editing, I started messing with the URL.
As for this given URL, coming from https://www.google.com/chrome/?standalone=1&platform=win64 (valid exe):
https://dl.google.com/tag/s/appguid%3D%7B8A69D345-D564-463C-AFF1-A69D9E530F96%7D%26iid%3D%7B04A7785F-B8A2-B4AA-7A45-17861EB0DE70%7D%26lang%3Dro%26browser%3D4%26usagestats%3D1%26appname%3DGoogle%2520Chrome%26needsadmin%3Dprefers%26ap%3Dx64-stable-statsdef_1%26installdataindex%3Ddefaultbrowser/chrome/install/ChromeStandaloneSetup64.exe
I trimmed down the appguid and iid, getting:
https://dl.google.com/tag/s/lang%3Dro%26browser%3D4%26usagestats%3D1%26appname%3DGoogle%2520Chrome%26needsadmin%3Dprefers%26ap%3Dx64-stable-statsdef_1%26installdataindex%3Ddefaultbrowser/chrome/install/ChromeStandaloneSetup64.exe
, which led to a broken exe, getting the same error code as above, Error code: 0x80070057.
Next thing I did was going to https://codebeautify.org/generate-random-data-from-regexp and generating a random appguid and iid (using hexadecimal values, because that's what I noticed it was being used in those fields) using this pattern:
[0-9A-F]{8}-[0-9A-F]{4}-[0-9A-F]{4}-[0-9A-F]{4}-[0-9A-F]{12}
, then using two different numbers:
038C42B4-AF87-AD38-990A-4384A7E29E04 - for appguid
EC7C4A9D-76CB-FBA7-D1C2-70EB689DA8F4 - for iid
https://dl.google.com/tag/s/appguid%3D%7B038C42B4-AF87-AD38-990A-4384A7E29E04%7D%26iid%3D%7BEC7C4A9D-76CB-FBA7-D1C2-70EB689DA8F4%7D%26lang%3Dro%26browser%3D4%26usagestats%3D1%26appname%3DGoogle%2520Chrome%26needsadmin%3Dprefers%26ap%3Dx64-stable-statsdef_1%26installdataindex%3Ddefaultbrowser/chrome/install/ChromeStandaloneSetup64.exe
, which, during installation, got me "Unable to connect to the Internet. If you use a firewall, please whitelist GoogleUpdate.exe" error.
So, since the appguid and iid were coming from a later version of Chrome (appguid and iid taken from 87.0.4280.66 and inserted into 86.0.4240.111), I assume, installation will finish successfully only if the appguid and iid contained in the exe itself, through computation during instalation, will yield a result that matches a value stored somewhere in the exe, or a value that also gets computed during installation. I say this, because when I installed the resulting valid standalone Chrome exe coming from the broken exe, the network was turned off, and there was no prior installation of Chrome on that system. Or maybe those two values are somehow tied to the operating system.
I conclusion, I think I'll end up modifing the URLs in the batch file with those appguid and iid, unless I decide to take a closer look at the URLs of the upcoming releases of Chrome to get an even better idea of how all of this is working.
8A69D345-D564-463C-AFF1-A69D9E530F96 - for appguid
04A7785F-B8A2-B4AA-7A45-17861EB0DE70 - for iid
