Ubuntu
webbrowser-app package

[browser] Blank page when access to local URL (file://…) is denied

Bug #1503332 reported by Olivier Tilloy
16
This bug affects 3 people
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
Oxide
Confirmed
Undecided
Unassigned
Ubuntu UX
Fix Committed
High
James Mulholland
webbrowser-app (Ubuntu)
Confirmed
High
Unassigned

Bug Description

Since version 0.23+15.10.20151005-0ubuntu1, webbrowser-app is running under apparmor confinement.
This means that access to the local filesystem is denied (file://… URLs). There is no user feedback when that happens other than a blank page, which is not really great UX. A user-friendly error message to inform that browsing the local filesystem is restricted would be better.

UX Comment:
As discussed and agreed during our regular sync-up:
"...Use the standard error page for this case, which should come for free once oxide reports a failed load."

See original description
Revision history for this message
Olivier Tilloy (osomon) wrote :

I had a quick look at how we can detect that access was denied, and it seems that the only difference with a normal load sequence (load started, load committed, load succeeded) is that the HTTP status code is always 0 for all events in the sequence.

A "load succeeded" event with an HTTP status code of 0 might be enough to indicate that access was denied, need to double check.

Revision history for this message
Chris Coulson (chrisccoulson) wrote :

It doesn't look like net::URLRequestFileJob does an access check or handles that condition. However, net::FileProtocolHandler delegates an access check to net::NetworkDelegate (via OnCanAccessFile), and it looks like that can be used to fail the load.

I'll give it a try

Revision history for this message
Chris Coulson (chrisccoulson) wrote :

Ignore that - this should result in a failed load already. I'll investigate what's going wrong

Revision history for this message
Olivier Tilloy (osomon) wrote :

Discussed the design side of things with James, and his guidance is to use the standard error page for this case, which should come for free once oxide reports a failed load.

Magdalena Mirowicz (magdalena-mirowicz)
summary: - Blank page when access to local URL (file://…) is denied
+ [browser] Blank page when access to local URL (file://…) is denied
Changed in ubuntu-ux:
status: New → Triaged
importance: Undecided → High
assignee: nobody → James Mulholland (jamesjosephmulholland)
James Mulholland (jamesmulholland)
description: updated
Changed in ubuntu-ux:
status: Triaged → Fix Committed
Bill Filler (bfiller)
Changed in webbrowser-app (Ubuntu):
status: New → Confirmed
Changed in oxide:
status: New → Confirmed
Changed in webbrowser-app (Ubuntu):
importance: Undecided → High
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