Circuit Information is not displayed on Firefox error pages

The issue Circuit information is not displayed on Firefox error pages "Untrusted Connection" or "Problem Loading Page".

Why does that matter? User encounters a suspicious SSL error:

• User can no longer visit an IP discovery website because Tor Browser will use a different circuit and,

• Tor Browser does not display the circuit information.

It's then difficult for the user to determine which exit they were using when they encountered the suspicious behavior.

This obstacle might ultimately prevent users from investigating suspicious exits or making BadExit reports to Tor.

Recreation/Versions

Behavior described can be observed at https://mjvmobile.com.br/ (SSL error) or any domain that wont load. Clicking TorButton does not display circuit information while on the error page.

This happens reliably with Tor Browser 4.5 (Windows).

added component::applications/tor browser owner::tbb-team priority::medium resolution::worksforme severity::normal status::closed tbb-circuit-display tbb-torbutton tbb-usability type::defect labels

Trac:
Keywords: Untrusted Connection, SSL, Certificate deleted, tbb-usability, tbb-torbutton, tbb-circuit-display added
Cc: N/A to arthuredelstein, gk

Here's a patch for this ticket. https://github.com/arthuredelstein/torbutton/commit/69ed9aa24d42d2d36f281de6353db628b59c4240

I changed the circuit display to update whenever a tab initiates the first connection for a new page. So the tor circuit is displayed earlier (roughly as soon as it is available) and also remains visible if the connection fails and an error page is shown by the browser.

This patch also re-organizes the tor-circuit-display.js file, but most functions are not changed.

Trac:
Status: new to needs_review
Keywords: N/A deleted, TorBrowserTeam201505R added

Trac:
Keywords: N/A deleted, GeorgKoppen201505R added

Looks good to me. I am a bit confused about the setTimeout() call. Why do we need it? And we are not introducing hard to debug race conditions, right? grin Could you add a comment in the code on the reason why we have to use it?

Hrm... it seems I can reliably reproduce cases where the circuit display is not shown anymore at all with this patch. One is: Sec slider -> high and loading spiegel.de. Not sure why this happens yet.

Trac:
Status: needs_review to needs_revision

Replying to gk:

Hrm... it seems I can reliably reproduce cases where the circuit display is not shown anymore at all with this patch. One is: Sec slider -> high and loading spiegel.de. Not sure why this happens yet.

I also see this with the Security Slider set to low. Looks like this has to do with a redirect from spiegel.de -> www.spiegel.de. I'm working on a fix.

#15983 (moved) is a duplicate.

Trac:
Keywords: TorBrowserTeam201505R, GeorgKoppen201505R deleted, TorBrowserTeam201505 added

Trac:
Keywords: TorBrowserTeam201505 deleted, N/A added

Marked #17373 (moved) as duplicate.

Trac:
Severity: N/A to Normal
Sponsor: N/A to N/A
Cc: arthuredelstein, gk to arthuredelstein, gk, arma

Trac:
Cc: arthuredelstein, gk, arma to arthuredelstein, gk, arma, mcs

Closed #18724 (moved) as duplicate.

Trac:
Reviewer: N/A to N/A
Cc: arthuredelstein, gk, arma, mcs to arthuredelstein, gk, arma, mcs, special

Closed #18122 (moved) as a duplicate, because it needs the same solution as this ticket (comment:2). And its part about performance is the same as #18859 (moved).

Trac:
Summary: Circuit Information is not displayed on Firefox error pages to Circuit information is not displayed on Tor Browser new/error pages

Closed #20503 (moved) a duplicate.

I would like to report another problem that seems to be related, when a website doesn't load due to a problem with the current circuit I have to wait until it stops trying to load the page to be able to use "New Tor Circuit for this Site". I wish this could be improved so I could use this button while it is still trying to load the page as this is the time I need to use this feature the most. If I manually stop loading the page, "new tor circuit" option doesn't work

easiest way to see what I mean is to try loading a non-existent onion page like: http://wwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.onion/

if you try new tor circuit for this page in the middle of loading, it stops everything and doesn't help

Surprisingly, TBB 7.0a3 shows circuits while trying to load page in the description, even though connections ended with REMOTE_REASON=RESOLVEFAILED. Seems ff52 spoofs torbutton (status bar shows "connected" for the site), but loads the site forever (bug).

Replying to cypherpunks:

if you try new tor circuit for this page in the middle of loading, it stops everything and doesn't help It's because URL of the tab continues to be about:blank. It's better to file a new ticket for this issue.

This seems to work for me, right now. (Using a custom Tor Browser 7.5a8) The issue in comment:16 seems to be related to #22538 (moved).

Trac:
Status: needs_revision to closed
Resolution: N/A to worksforme

Doesn't work for me in 7.5a10 on new tabs.

Trac:
Resolution: worksforme to N/A
Status: closed to reopened

Replying to cypherpunks:

Doesn't work for me in 7.5a10 on new tabs.

New tabs don't have domains in their URL bar. Thus, that behavior is expected.

Trac:
Status: reopened to closed
Resolution: N/A to worksforme

Bleh. Not expected, but as you insist, restoring the tickets... Also it doesn't work for URL in comment:16, still has comment:17 and comment:18.

Trac:
Summary: Circuit information is not displayed on Tor Browser new/error pages to Circuit Information is not displayed on Firefox error pages

Replying to cypherpunks:

Bleh. Not expected, but as you insist, restoring the tickets... Also it doesn't work for URL in comment:16, still has comment:17 and comment:18.

What is expected instead if you are opening a new tab and look at the circuit display? You don't have any domain in your URL bar let alone started to load that one.

closed

mentioned in issue #15983 (moved)

mentioned in issue #17373 (moved)

mentioned in issue #18122 (moved)

mentioned in issue #18724 (moved)

mentioned in issue #20503 (moved)

moved to tpo/applications/tor-browser#15897 (closed)