163308 - help: URLs launch empty Apple Help Viewer

Status: VERIFIED DUPLICATE of bug 243699

(Core :: Networking, defect)

Description

[Will Budreau]

i typed "help:" thinking it might get me help information (i.e. "about:", "chrome:")

Instead, an empty Apple "Help Viewer" window opens.

This may be Apple's "correct behaviour" for the "help:" transport protocol, but
as a User I have no idea why I get a blank window.

Comment 1

[Jo Hermans]

Gee, I didn't even know this existed. I can confirm this (build 2002081408 on
Mac OS 9), but I see this also in Internet Exploder 5.

I can't find any reference to a 'help' protocol handler in Mozilla. I didn't
know we ended up calling some Apple-specific handler (since Exploder does it too) ?

The empty page is actually a prompt for your input (type 'mouse' in the
textfield, and you what it is). Very unfriendly.

I'm not sure what to do with this, since it seems to be Apple's bug. But I don't
think that many users will discover this.

Comment 2

[Frankie]

The help: protocol is built in to OS X. You are supposed to specify a file path
to the appropriate help document. http://www.google.com/mac?q=help+viewer+URL

This bug is probably a dupe.

Comment 3

[benc]

-> networking

Comment 4

[Gareth Randall]

Okay, you ignored it... Now it's got a bit more serious.

There's a serious remote-exploit bug with the Mac Help Viewer. Apple's first
patch is reported not to have fixed it.

http://software.silicon.com/security/0,39024655,39120920,00.htm

I'm here trying to work out how to *turn off* the automatic launching of Help
Viewer and it's looking like someone's taken the decision to hard code it? (Am I
correct?) Where is it listed in Helper Applications etc?

Can you un-hard-code it so we can all browse the web safely again please?

Comment 5

[Christian :Biesinger (don't email me, ping me on IRC)]

known and fixed. see attachment 148702 [details] [diff] [review] for the pref names.

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 243699 ***