"Check certificates using Tor for anonymity" is reportedly sometimes grey in TBB

Some users are confused why "Check certificates using Tor for anonymity" is greyed out in Tor Browser. I am quite confident that the Observatory will respect the proxy settings even without that setting.

In my regular Firefox, it is also greyed out. I do have a system Tor and a TBB running.

I know nothing about how HTTPS-E detects Tor, but I suspect the detection and/or the whole setting might not be very useful any more?

(tested on Debian, TBB dev alpha based on Firefox ESR 17.0.2, HTTPS-E 3.1.3)

added component::https everywhere/eff-https everywhere priority::medium severity::normal status::new type::defect labels

Replying to mo:

In my regular Firefox, it is also greyed out. I do have a system Tor and a TBB running.

Do you have "Use the Observatory?" checked?

Replying to gk:

Replying to mo:

In my regular Firefox, it is also greyed out. I do have a system Tor and a TBB running.

Do you have "Use the Observatory?" checked?

Yes, in both browsers.

So, working from memory here without referring back to the source:

"Check certificates using tor for anonymity" should really be "only check certificates using Tor for anonymity". If it's unchecked, it means the observatory will use a direct SSL connection if it cannot find Tor.

That option will be greyed out if HTTPS Everywhere failed to successfully identify a method for making requests through Tor when it started. But if Tor is installed or running or works correctly on a future browser startup, the observatory will switch to using Tor at that time, even if this option is unchecked.

Trac:
Summary: "Check certificates using Tor for anonymity" disabled. Is it still useful? to "Check certificates using Tor for anonymity" is reportedly sometimes grey in TBB

Mike, do you want to see if you can reproduce this?

Trac:
Owner: pde to mikeperry
Status: new to assigned

Set all open tickets without a severity to "Normal"

Trac:
Severity: N/A to Normal

Trac:
Owner: mikeperry to N/A
Cc: N/A to mikeperry

Change tickets that are assigned to nobody to "new".

Trac:
Status: assigned to new

mentioned in issue #10634 (moved)

moved to tpo/applications/https-everywhere-eff#8222 (closed)