1455853 - after clearing browsing data, about:home tab displays previous website URL on browser restart

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Firefox :: Session Restore, defect, P3)

Description

[baptx]

Attachment: firefox_privacy_leak.png

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Ubuntu; Linux x86_64; rv:59.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/59.0
Build ID: 20180404120016

Steps to reproduce:

I noticed this problem since several versions.

Prequesite : Firefox general preferences are configured to "When Firefox starts" -> "Show your windows and tabs from last time".

1. On a clean profile, open a second tab and go to a website like duckduckgo.com
2. Click the home button to display the about:home page
3. Clear all browsing data
4. Restart the browser


Actual results:

The about:home page displays the previous website URL in the browser address bar. This a big problem for privacy since the user should have deleted all browsing data.


Expected results:

Display the about:home page without using the previous website URL in the browser address bar. All browsing data should also be deleted correctly.

Comment 1

[baptx]

There was also another bug, after clearing all my browsing data and restarting Firefox, I lost all my tabs (hopefully they were saved as favorites). I don't know the steps to reproduce this issue so I did not create another bug report for the moment.

Comment 2

[Alice0775 White]

(In reply to baptx from comment #0)
> Created attachment 8969895 [details]
> firefox_privacy_leak.png
> 
> User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Ubuntu; Linux x86_64; rv:59.0) Gecko/20100101
> Firefox/59.0
> Build ID: 20180404120016
> 
> Steps to reproduce:
> 
> I noticed this problem since several versions.
> 
> Prequesite : Firefox general preferences are configured to "When Firefox
> starts" -> "Show your windows and tabs from last time".
> 
> 1. On a clean profile, open a second tab and go to a website like
> duckduckgo.com
> 2. Click the home button to display the about:home page
> 3. Clear all browsing data
> 4. Restart the browser
> 
> 
> Actual results:
> 
> The about:home page displays the previous website URL in the browser address
> bar. This a big problem for privacy since the user should have deleted all
> browsing data.
> 
> 
> Expected results:
> 
> Display the about:home page without using the previous website URL in the
> browser address bar. All browsing data should also be deleted correctly.


I can confirm the fake url on Nightly61.0a1 as well as 52.7.3esr.

Comment 3

[baptx]

Switched priority to P1 (https://wiki.mozilla.org/Bugzilla:Priority_System) since it is really important for users privacy, "Clear all browsing data" functionality should no keep any information except current opened tabs.

Comment 4

[baptx]

For the similar issue I mentioned in a previous comment (all opened tabs are lost), here is the report: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1477184

Comment 5

[BugBot [:suhaib / :marco/ :calixte]]

Moving to p3 because no activity for at least 24 weeks.
See https://github.com/mozilla/bug-handling/blob/master/policy/triage-bugzilla.md#how-do-you-triage for more information

Comment 6

[Negritas Sergiu, Desktop QA]

Hello! I have tried to reproduce the issue using fx 93.0a1(08-31-2021) but unfortunately I was unable to reproduce it. I will change the severity to a lower one. If the issue is still a high priority please feel free to change the severity to an appropriate state.

Thank you and have a nice day!

Comment 7

[Timea Cernea [:tbabos][inactive]]

I am also unable to reproduce this on the latest Nightly 96.0a1 version on Windows 10.
Closing this as resolved:worksforme.
Hi Baptz, if you are still able to reproduce this on the latest Firefox version, please do let us know and we will re-open this ticket.
Thanks!