Does Canvas detect Chrome extensions?
No. A web page cannot read the list of extensions installed in your browser, and Canvas is a web page. What Canvas records during a quiz is when the quiz tab loses focus and when it comes back, with timestamps. Extensions are blocked by a separate proctoring browser such as Respondus LockDown Browser, because that is not Chrome.
Why a website cannot list your extensions
Chrome runs an extension's content script in an isolated world. There the script can read and change the page. The page cannot reach the script's variables, and it cannot ask the browser what is installed.
Canvas is a normal web page. It receives the page you see, plus any element an extension puts into that page. It does not receive an inventory of your browser.
The same limit covers the rest of your machine. A page cannot read your other tabs, and it cannot record your screen with the Screen Capture API or your camera and microphone with getUserMedia() until you accept a browser permission prompt.
What any web page can see
- Its own content, including elements an extension added to it.
- Whether its own tab has focus, through the visibilitychange event.
- Your IP address and your browser user agent string, because every request carries them.
What Canvas does record during a quiz
Classic Quizzes keeps a quiz log for each attempt. It holds four kinds of event with timestamps: viewed (and possibly read) a question, answered a question, stopped viewing the Canvas quiz-taking page, and resumed (Instructure quiz log guide).
"Stopped viewing" fires when the quiz tab loses focus. Another window, another tab, a system notification, or a dropped connection can each trigger it. The entry does not record where your focus went.
New Quizzes shows a similar attempt log on the Moderate page, with the start and finish of the attempt and each event. Session details can flag one attempt taken on more than one device or browser. The client IP, browser and operating system in those details can only be viewed by admins, unless an admin grants teachers the new_quizzes_view_ip_address permission.
Outside the quiz, the People page shows Last Activity and Total Activity, and the course access report shows each item you opened, times viewed, times participated and last viewed. Page views with the user agent and IP are an admin-level report; the Canvas users API returns remote_ip. Teachers do not get that by default.
What a professor sees in the quiz log
Read as a checklist for one attempt, the log looks like this.
| Signal | In the quiz log? |
|---|---|
| Extensions installed in Chrome | No |
| Which tab, site or app you opened | No, only that the page lost focus |
| Moment the page lost focus and resumed | Yes, with a timestamp |
| Question viewed and question answered | Yes, with a timestamp |
| Screen, webcam or microphone | No |
| Copy and paste | No, there is no clipboard event |
| Your IP address | Not in the Classic log; in New Quizzes session details, for admins |
Instructure adds its own caution: quiz logs "are not intended to validate academic integrity or identify cheating". Logs are kept for six months.
When extensions do get blocked
Respondus LockDown Browser is a separate application rather than Chrome, so Chrome extensions never load in it. It also scans running processes at launch and refuses virtual machines and remote desktop sessions. Inside it, the usual browser actions are switched off, from copy and paste to screen capture and task switching.
Respondus Monitor goes further. Through your webcam and microphone it captures the attempt from start to finish, and it marks moments for an instructor to review later.
Check the quiz instructions; they say when a course uses one. Proctoring tools that a school installs on top of Canvas can add rules of their own. New Quizzes on its own has no built-in proctoring; the quiz settings an instructor controls are shuffle, one question at a time, time limit, attempts, IP filter, access code and calculator.
"Fingerprinting" claims on other blogs, and why they are unsupported
Some posts say Canvas fingerprints your browser and spots quiz extensions that way. No Instructure guide describes extension detection. The quiz log article lists four events. The Moderate page article lists attempt events and session details. Neither one mentions installed software.
The only browser identity in the system is the user agent string and the IP address that every request carries, and those sit in admin-level reporting. A user agent names a browser and an operating system version. It is not a list of extensions.
A second common claim is clipboard logging. The documented event list has no clipboard entry, and no Instructure guide describes a clipboard feature in quizzes. The Instructure quiz log guide lists exactly those four events: viewed a question, answered a question, stopped viewing the quiz-taking page, and resumed.
How Canvas Quiz Solver works inside the page
Canvas Quiz Solver is a Chrome extension. It puts a button next to the question you are on, and the answer appears inside the Canvas quiz page, on Classic Quizzes and on New Quizzes. Because the answer is in the page, you do not open another tab or another window for it. The first five answers are free, then it is $4.99 per month. It is a Chrome extension, so it does not run in LockDown Browser; use it in a normal Chrome tab.
Questions about how it behaves on a specific quiz page go to support@canvasquiz.com.
Sources
- Content scripts
- Screen Capture API
- MediaDevices: getUserMedia() method
- Document: visibilitychange event
- How do I view a quiz log for a student?
- Canvas Quiz Logs
- How do I use the Moderate page in New Quizzes?
- How do I view multi-session details in New Quizzes as an admin?
- How do I manage settings for a quiz in New Quizzes?
- How do I view the course access report for an individual user?
- Users - Canvas LMS REST API Documentation
- LockDown Browser vs. Locked Browser Extensions
- LockDown Browser
- Respondus Monitor
Common questions
Can professors see my extensions?
No. A web page cannot list the extensions in your browser, and Canvas gives instructors no extension report. What they open is the quiz log, the course access report and the activity times, and all three describe actions taken inside Canvas.
Does Canvas know if I use a quiz extension?
Canvas records events in its own page: a question viewed, a question answered, the page losing focus, the page resuming. There is no event for an extension. Anything an extension adds to the page stays in your browser.
Does LockDown Browser detect extensions?
It does not have to. LockDown Browser is a separate application, not Chrome, so Chrome extensions never load in it. It also scans running processes at launch and refuses virtual machines and remote desktop sessions.
Will an extension show in the quiz log?
No. The Classic Quizzes log lists four event types with timestamps: viewed a question, answered a question, stopped viewing the quiz-taking page, resumed. Installed software never appears. Instructure also states the log is not meant to identify cheating.
Does Canvas detect Grammarly or other extensions?
No, and the rule is the same for every extension. Canvas receives the page in front of you, including text an extension writes into a field, but it does not receive the name of the tool that wrote the text.
Answers inside Canvas, without leaving the page
Canvas Quiz Solver reads the question you are on and puts an answer right below it.
Add to Chrome - free