72758 - After sign-in at Netscape Netcenter, there should be a NS_REG cookie but there is not

Status: VERIFIED INVALID

(Core :: Networking: Cookies, defect)

Description

[andreasplesch]

From Bugzilla Helper:
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; WinNT4.0; en-US; 0.8.1) Gecko/20010316
BuildID:    2001031604

I have a webpage at sites.netscape.net with a netscape hitometer. At
sitecentral.netscape.com I can manage and view my hitometer data at the 'View
your Visitor counter results'. With the latest mozilla build (and a 200011
version) I get

Hitometer data is currently available !
Try reloading this page, then click the Hitometer link again.

However, even after reloading and in fact always this message is repeated and I
can never get to the hitometer data.

The link calls a java script function which I do not understand, therefore the
summary.

It may be necessary to create a account, webpage and hitometer with netscape to
reproduce this.

Considering that this is a netscape service this bug is rather more serious but
may be entirely due to the page coding and not mozillas interpretation.

Reproducible: Always
Steps to Reproduce:
1.Create account with netscape
2.Create webpage at sitecentral.netscape.com
3.Add hitometer to page
4.Go to sitecentral.netscape.com
5.Hit 'View your Visitor counter results' link.


Actual Results:  Warning:

Hitometer data is currently available !
Try reloading this page, then click the Hitometer link again.

Expected Results:  Go to hitometer data page.

Comment 1

[Phil Schwartau]

> Considering that this is a Netscape service this bug is rather more 
> serious but may be entirely due to the page coding and not Mozilla's 
> interpretation.
           
                                                                            
[e-mail]: 


1. What happens if you try the same steps with another browser, like NN4.7 
or IE4.7? Do you get the same message? Also, is the message "Hitometer data 
is currently available" as you've written, or "Hitometer data is currently 
unavailable" ?


2. Try this: before doing the experiment, open the JavaScript Console
(Tasks-->Tools-->JavaScript Console), and clear out any messages. Then do 
the test, open the JavaScript Console: are there any error messages there now? 
If so, what do they say? 


3. Finally, if you can see the JavaScript function(s) being called,
could you paste it(them) into this bug? If it is a large file, you can
attach it to the bug via the "Create a new attachment" link above. Thanks -
 

Comment 2

[andreasplesch]

Phil:
ad 1a. With both Netscape 4.76 and IE 5.0, the link is followed to

http://hitometer.netscape.com/counter/scripts/states/router.cgi?istate=start&status=account_summary&nid=andreasplesch&login=[e-mail]&banner=nscp_sitecentral

Netscape 6.01 shows the same behaviour as mozilla and I filed a similar bug.
Konqueror of KDE 2.1 also returns this message.

ad 1b. The message says "unavailable" (I had to copy by typing, sorry).


ad 2. no, there are no messages at all in the javascript console

ad 3. It is the javascript:viewHitometer(); function defined in the page as:

<script LANGUAGE="JavaScript"></script>
<script LANGUAGE="JavaScript"
SRC="http://sitestatic.netscape.com/common/pwp_lib.js"></script>
<script LANGUAGE="JavaScript"
SRC="http://sitestatic.netscape.com/common/cookie_lib.js"></script>
<script Language="JavaScript">

var emailAddr  = COOKIE_getEmail();
var hitomgrurl = "http://www.hitometer.com/counter/scripts/states/router.cgi";
var uid        = "andreasplesch";

function viewHitometer() {
   if( hitomgrurl != 0 && uid != 0 && emailAddr != 0 )
      document.location.href="http://info.netscape.com/fwd/sitetools/" +
hitomgrurl + "?istate=start&status=account_summary&nid=" + uid + "&login=" +
emailAddr + "&banner=nscp_sitecentral";
   else
      alert("Hitometer data is currently unavailable!\nTry reloading this page,
then click the Hitometer link again.");
   return false;
}

I have all cookies enabled and had to log into the netscape services the first
time I visited sitecentral with mozilla. The COOKIE_getemail() is not defined in
this page but probably externally in
http://sitestatic.netscape.com/common/cookie_lib.js
Yes, there it is. Please have a look (created attachment but is downloadable).

--
Unrelated: On the same page, when the Guest Book entries link is picked, I am
transferred but the page is blank and there is an error message in the
javascript console:

Error: uncaught exception: [Exception... "Access to property denied"  code:
"1010" nsresult: "0x805303f2 (NS_ERROR_DOM_PROP_ACCESS_DENIED)"  location:
"http://sitecentral.netscape.com/edit/guestbookmgr_state.tmpl?sort= Line: 15"]

Comment 3

[andreasplesch]

Attachment: javascript lib with COOKIE_getemail() [netscape 6.01 does not let you create attchments!]

Comment 4

[Phil Schwartau]

[e-mail]: thank you, this is excellent information!

This is unlikely to be a problem in the JS Engine, and I am reassigning 
to the Cookies component for further triage. Note there are no errors
reported in the JavaScript Console for the initial problem - 

Not sure if there are Security issues involved also; cc'ing mstoltz.
We do see above that NS_ERROR_DOM_PROP_ACCESS_DENIED occurs eventually.

Comment 5

[andreasplesch]

This is the third time I try to enter this comment. I had crashes before when
logging into bugzilla probably because of Bug 53956. Frustrating. Now, I use
netscape6 which can login but not create attachments.

The javascript error is completely unrelated but worth another bug.

Well, changing the component does not do much by itself :)

ok, I investigated a bit more:

Deleting all cookies and signing in at netcenter again at

http://ureg.netscape.com/iiop/UReg2/login/log_back_in

gives me these cookies issued by netscape

HITO_VISITS
NSCP_USER_LOGIN1
NSCP_USER_LOGIN1_NEW
NSCP_USER_LOGIN2
NS_REG2_LOGIN2
NS_REG2_USERLOGIN
Reg2CookieTest

COOKIE_get email

function COOKIE_getEmail() {
   var mp_cookie = COOKIE_getMultiPartCookie("NS_REG");
   var email = mp_cookie["UR_EMAIL"];
   if (email == null)
      return "";
   else
      return email;
}

needs NS_REG which I do not have. To check I had a look in profiles\cookies and
yes, explorer has a netscape NS_REG cookie in contrast.

So, mozilla/netscape6 may be treated 2n class when signing or, or cookie
acceptance/generation does not work 100% at

http://ureg.netscape.com/iiop/UReg2/login/log_back_in

New summary: After sign in at netscape netcenter, there should be a NS_REG
cookie but there is not.

Comment 6

[Phil Schwartau]

[e-mail]: you are solving this single-handedly!
Updating summary to reflect your findings above - 

Comment 7

[andreasplesch]

I had a look at the login page but I think that is where netscape has to take over.

Comment 8

[andreasplesch]

I did one more experiment with NN4.76 and deleted my cookies file. It turns out
that I have the same problems and cannot get the NS_REG cookie back at any sign
in. My suspicion is that it was set with a previous version of netcenter and was
kept since then. Maybe the sitecentral system was not updated correctly. In any
case, it seems a bug with netcenter, not with mozilla. Sitecentral works with
N4.76 and Explorer only because of their older cookie history.

As a workaround, signing it at

http://websitegarage.netscape.com

gives access to the hitometer manager without the NS_REG cookie. Will try with
mozilla tomorrow.

All in all, probably false alarm. Lots of wasted thinking just because of
careless/overcomplex page/site design and coding. Too late for nicer words.

Comment 9

[andreasplesch]

Both

http://websitegarage.netscape.com
and
http://hitometer.netscape.com

work with Konqueror 2.1 (with a mozilla user agent string), so I assume they
work also with mozilla.

Comment 10

[andreasplesch]

http://hitometer.netscape.com

works with mozilla and netscape 6.01 as a workaround for the
buggy coding at sitecentral/ureg.netscape.com

Resolved bug as invalid.

Hope that this did not waste anybody elses time, at least I found this workaround.

Comment 11

[Tom Everingham]

verfied invalid per reporters comment