Some URLs are saved in the Tor Browser places.sqlite database as part of the browsing history
The situation that I am describing may or may not be due to an error in the Tor Browser software ("defect" may not be the best category), but it seems somewhat anomalous and may be worth noting and may be of interest to others.
In summary, from what I can tell, an instance of the URL https://us-u.openx.net/w/1.0/pd?plm=10&ph=e26121be-304d-460c-92c5-0b3d1d4c9b7a (which may well have been embedded in a different page) ended up in Tor Browser's places.sqlite database as if it was saved as part of the user's browsing history. This on-disk database is used to store such information as bookmarks, browsing history, favicons, and annotations, among other things. At the same time, from what I understand, Tor Browser is preconfigured to not save any browsing history to the disk, and I do not remember reconfiguring Tor Browser with the purpose of changing this aspect.
The software configuration in question was a recent version of the Tor Browser Bundle (most likely 7.0.2) 32-bit running under Xubuntu Linux 16.04. I do not remember installing any additional extensions into Tor Browser.
When entering text in the address bar, Tor Browser displayed a list of suggestions underneath the address bar. This would be expected. In addition to pages that had been bookmarked, however, the list of suggestions also included the URL https://us-u.openx.net/w/1.0/pd?plm=10&ph=e26121be-304d-460c-92c5-0b3d1d4c9b7a. This URL was not among the pages that I had bookmarked in the browser. In addition, from what I remember, the inclusion of the openx.net URL in the suggestions list happened when text was entered into the address bar immediately after Tor Browser had been launched.
From information elsewhere, there is an SQLite database in a file, places.sqlite, that is used by Tor Browser (and Mozilla Firefox) for storing information relating to bookmarked sites and browsing history. In the case of the Tor Browser Bundle under Xubuntu Linux, the location of this file is tor-browser_en-US/Browser/TorBrowser/Data/Browser/profile.default/places.sqlite
, assuming the default root directory tor-browser_en-US
.
With the command-line sqlite3 software, I examined the contents of the places.sqlite file. For the moz_places table, there were a number of entries, including sites that had been bookmarked but also an entry for the openx.net URL that had shown up in the suggestions list.
sqlite> select id,url,title,rev_host,visit_count,hidden,typed,frecency,datetime((moz_places.last_visit_date/1000000), 'unixepoch') from moz_places where url like "%openx.net%";
8|https://us-u.openx.net/w/1.0/pd?plm=10&ph=e26121be-304d-460c-92c5-0b3d1d4c9b7a||ten.xnepo.u-su.|1|1|0|-1|2017-06-27 21:59:47
According to the schema for the moz_places table and the results of the above query, the primary key index (id
) for the openx.net URL is 8. The hidden
field has a value of 1, indicating that the URL was one that was not navigated to directly by the user (i.e. the URL was for content that was embedded in a page) and the typed
field has a value of 0, indicating that the URL was not typed directly into the location bar.
In the moz_bookmarks table, which holds information about bookmarked pages, there is (as expected) no entry for the openx.net URL:
sqlite> select * from moz_bookmarks where fk is 8;
sqlite>
According to this page, the fk
column in the moz_bookmarks table holds the primary key index for the moz_places entry that was bookmarked.
The moz_inputhistory table does not appear to contain any entries:
sqlite> select * from moz_inputhistory;
sqlite>
Notably, the moz_historyvists table does contain a single entry. This entry corresponds to the openx.net URL.
sqlite> select id, from_visit, place_id, datetime((moz_historyvisits.visit_date/1000000), 'unixepoch'), visit_type from moz_historyvisits;
1|0|8|2017-06-27 21:59:47|5
In the results of the query, the place_id
column has the value 8, which corresponds to the primary key index for the openx.net URL. The visit_type
field has a value of 5, which indicates a permanent redirect, according to this page.
As far as whether the openx.net URL has appeared elsewhere, a Web search led to this "Cookie and Security Scan Report" for kurl8.com. In the report, there is mention of a similar URL, http://us-u.openx.net/w/1.0/pd?plm=10&ph=e26121be-304d-460c-92c5-0b3d1d4c9b7a&bi=1e76f9dc-b164-49ba-aef9-3f1a93d491e5.