How can I remove DRM from an audible audiobook (aax)?

I hope I do not ask anything that is illegal. I have purchased an audiobook and audible offers to download the corresponding file, which is an aax file. As far as I understood one can somehow extract the authentication code, convert the file and use it as mp3. But all I found were solutions which used someone's code (projekt "tables") from github. I did not find anything in the apt repositories from Ubuntu and do not know if I should trust that source. Therefore I need a way to get it work without any third party software that I don't know and where I do not believe that other people have checked the code.

Is there a safe procedure that you can recommend?

1 Answer

AAXtoMP3

The purpose of this software is to convert AAX (or AAXC) files to common MP3, M4A, M4B, flac and ogg formats through a basic bash script front-end to FFMPEG.

AAXtoMP3 is a bash shell script that can be run as a normal user without sudo

1. Download the zip archive from

2. Extract the contents of AAXtoMP3-master.zip.

3. Install dependencies.

   sudo apt install ffmpeg lame jq mediainfo 

4. Change directories with cd to the directory that contains AAXtoMP3 and run bash AAXtoMP3 to display its command-line options or run either of the two usage commands.

   Usage:

   bash AAXtoMP3 [-f|--flac] [-o|--opus] [-a|-aac] [-s|--single] [--level <COMPRESSIONLEVEL>] [-c|--chaptered] [-e:mp3] [-e:m4a] [-e:m4b] [-A|--authcode <AUTHCODE>] [-n|--no-clobber] [-t|--target_dir <PATH>] [-C|--complete_dir <PATH>] [-V|--validate] [--use-audible-cli-data]] [-d|--debug] [-h|--help] [--continue <CHAPTERNUMBER>] <AAX/AAXC INPUT_FILES>...

   or if you want to get guided through the options:

   bash interactiveAAXtoMP3 [-a|--advanced] [-h|--help]