Closed Bug 1487373 Opened 6 years ago Closed 3 years ago

Videos are not played on www.zdnet.com with Basic Tracking Protection ON

Categories

(Core :: Privacy: Anti-Tracking, defect, P3)

62 Branch
x86_64
Windows 10
defect

Tracking

()

VERIFIED FIXED
Tracking Status
firefox87 --- wontfix
firefox92 --- verified
firefox93 --- verified

People

(Reporter: sergiu, Unassigned)

References

(Blocks 1 open bug, )

Details

(Whiteboard: [tp-ads][tp-content][tp-shim-trivial][tp-embedded-media])

User Story

2mdn.net
cbsinteractive.com
evidon.com
googleapis.com
Environment:
Operating system: Windows 10 Pro
Firefox version: Firefox Nightly 63.0a1 (2018-08-29) (64-bit)

Prerequisites:
Enable Basic Tracking Protection

Steps to reproduce:
1. Navigate to: https://www.zdnet.com/video/australian-defence-looking-for-multiple-unmanned-war-vehicles-controlled-by-single-person/
2. Observe the video placeholder.

Expected Behavior:
The video is opened.

Actual Behavior:
The video is stuck with an infinite loading spinner.

Notes:
1. Screenshot attached: http://prntscr.com/komsiw
This is related to `tpvideo` breakage #1400025

Looking at the devtools console, here are the blocked resources:

The resource at “https://c.evidon.com/sitenotice/evidon-sitenotice-tag.js” was blocked because content blocking is enabled.[Learn More] australian-defence-looking-for-multiple-unmanned-war-vehicles-controlled-by-single-person
The resource at “https://cdn.viglink.com/api/vglnk.js” was blocked because content blocking is enabled.[Learn More] australian-defence-looking-for-multiple-unmanned-war-vehicles-controlled-by-single-person
The resource at “https://asset.pagefair.com/measure.min.js?_=1535628916775” was blocked because content blocking is enabled.[Learn More] australian-defence-looking-for-multiple-unmanned-war-vehicles-controlled-by-single-person
The resource at “https://cbsi.demdex.net/dest5.html?d_nsid=0#https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zdnet.com%2Fvideo%2Faustralian-defence-looking-for-multiple-unmanned-war-vehicles-controlled-by-single-person%2F” was blocked because content blocking is enabled.[Learn More] australian-defence-looking-for-multiple-unmanned-war-vehicles-controlled-by-single-person
The resource at “https://www.everestjs.net/static/st.v3.js” was blocked because content blocking is enabled.[Learn More] australian-defence-looking-for-multiple-unmanned-war-vehicles-controlled-by-single-person
The resource at “https://js.agkn.com/prod/v0/tag.js” was blocked because content blocking is enabled.[Learn More] australian-defence-looking-for-multiple-unmanned-war-vehicles-controlled-by-single-person
The resource at “https://secure-us.imrworldwide.com/cgi-bin/m?ci=us-304254h&cg=0&cc=1&si=https%3A//www.zdnet.com/video/australian-defence-looking-for-multiple-unmanned-war-vehicles-controlled-by-single-person/&rp=&ts=compact&rnd=1535628917556” was blocked because content blocking is enabled.[Learn More] australian-defence-looking-for-multiple-unmanned-war-vehicles-controlled-by-single-person
The resource at “https://sb.scorecardresearch.com/c2/3005086/cs.js” was blocked because content blocking is enabled.[Learn More] australian-defence-looking-for-multiple-unmanned-war-vehicles-controlled-by-single-person
The resource at “https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js” was blocked because content blocking is enabled.[Learn More] australian-defence-looking-for-multiple-unmanned-war-vehicles-controlled-by-single-person
The resource at “https://trc.taboola.com/sg/bombora/1/cm?redirect=https://ml314.com/csync.ashx%3Ffp=%3CTUID%3E%26person_id=5978151435560498717%26eid=50077” was blocked because content blocking is enabled.[Learn More] australian-defence-looking-for-multiple-unmanned-war-vehicles-controlled-by-single-person
The resource at “https://ce.lijit.com/merge?pid=5031&3pid=5978151435560498717” was blocked because content blocking is enabled.[Learn More] australian-defence-looking-for-multiple-unmanned-war-vehicles-controlled-by-single-person
The resource at “https://match.adsrvr.org/track/cmf/generic?ttd_pid=eyeota&ttd_tpi=1” was blocked because content blocking is enabled.[Learn More] australian-defence-looking-for-multiple-unmanned-war-vehicles-controlled-by-single-person 

So these are the domains to test:
c.evidon.com
cdn.viglink.com
asset.pagefair.com
cbsi.demdex.net
www.everestjs.net
js.agkn.com
secure-us.imrworldwide.com
sb.scorecardresearch.com
connect.facebook.net
trc.taboola.com
ce.lijit.com
match.adsrvr.org

I opened the URL in a fresh browser profile (Firefox Nightly 63, uMatrix installed, normal mode) and loaded the page. The video did not load.

I disabled the Spoof Referrer option in uMatrix and then *WHITELISTED*:
-2mdn.net
-akamaized.net
-cbsinteractive.com
-vidtech.cbsinteractive.com
-cbsistatic.com
-evidon.com
-imasdk.googleapis.com

After this, the video played.
The other resources didn't help.

http://prntscr.com/kon1y2

-2mdn.net can be found in the disconnect-blacklist.json, disconnect-entitylist.json and disconnect_mapping.py.
-akamaized.net can not be found in any of the lists.
-cbsinteractive.com can be found in the disconnect-blacklist.json and disconnect-entitylist.json.
-vidtech.cbsinteractive.com can not be found in any of the lists.
-cbsistatic.com can not be found in any of the lists.
-evidon.com can be found in the disconnect-blacklist.json and disconnect-entitylist.json.
-imasdk.googleapis.com can be found in the disconnect-blacklist.json and disconnect-entitylist.json.

So in conclusion:
2mdn.net - Advertising = [tp-ads]
cbsinteractive.com - Content [tp-content]
evidon.com - Advertising = [tp-ads]
googleapis.com - Content [tp-content]
User Story: (updated)
Whiteboard: [tp-ads][tp-content]
Product: Tech Evangelism → Web Compatibility

I see the video and a play button in strict mode, but clicking it shows a "We're sorry, there was a problem" message. In the console I see:

Failed to load RequireJS module: //s0.2mdn.net/instream/html5/ima3.js; the Optional plugin is handling the following exception: Error: "Script error
http://requirejs.org/docs/errors.html#scripterror"
    makeError https://zdnet2.cbsistatic.com/fly/js/libs/require-2.1.2.js:6
    onScriptError https://zdnet2.cbsistatic.com/fly/js/libs/require-2.1.2.js:6
    load https://zdnet2.cbsistatic.com/fly/js/libs/require-2.1.2.js:6

And allowing that request to load fixes the issue, even if the script is rewritten to be completely blank. We would probably need to figure out what other domains are hosting this ima3.js library and treat those similarly.

Whiteboard: [tp-ads][tp-content] → [tp-ads][tp-content][tp-shim-trivial][tp-embedded-media]
See Also: → 1687457

The issue no longer occurs with ETP - Standard, the video plays now.
https://prnt.sc/x81anc

Note: The issue still occurs with ETP - Strict enabled.
https://prnt.sc/x81d3e

Tested with:
Browser / Version: Firefox Nightly 86.0a1 (2021-01-18)
Operating System: Windows 10 Pro

Status: NEW → RESOLVED
Closed: 3 years ago
Resolution: --- → FIXED
Status: RESOLVED → REOPENED
Component: Desktop → Privacy: Anti-Tracking
Product: Web Compatibility → Core
Resolution: FIXED → ---
Version: Firefox 62 → 62 Branch

(In reply to Thomas Wisniewski [:twisniewski] from comment #4)

I see the video and a play button in strict mode, but clicking it shows a "We're sorry, there was a problem" message. In the console I see:

Failed to load RequireJS module: //s0.2mdn.net/instream/html5/ima3.js; the Optional plugin is handling the following exception: Error: "Script error

An IMA3 shim was added in bug 1637329 and enabled in bug 1693386 for Firefox 87.

Does the issue still happen with ETP Strict?

https://searchfox.org/mozilla-central/rev/2e592c660fbed485a5376be8d14fde99671a4df3/browser/extensions/webcompat/data/shims.js#214-225

Flags: needinfo?(sergiu.logigan)

Yes, there is still something keeping the videos from playing (it may not be IMA3). I'll investigate ASAP.

Indeed, with a revised Google Publisher Tags shim and a fleshed-out IMA3 shim, this video now works for me.

Flags: needinfo?(sergiu.logigan)

I can't manage to reproduce this issue on the latest Firefox Nightly on Windows 10 x64, Ubuntu 20.04 x64 and on macOS 11.4 whether the strict mode was enable or not.
Are there any other verifications that needs to be done on this bug other than the steps from the description or we could close this bug?
Thanks.

Flags: needinfo?(twisniewski)

Thanks for checking! I was going to go through the backlog of issues fixed by SmartBlock for Firefox 92 soon, and close them. This is one of them; yes, we can close it.

Status: REOPENED → RESOLVED
Closed: 3 years ago3 years ago
Flags: needinfo?(twisniewski)
Resolution: --- → FIXED
Status: RESOLVED → VERIFIED
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