1731987 - Pictures from article do not load at yahoo.com with ETP set to STRICT

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

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

Description

[Raul Bucata]

Attachment: Screenshot_63.png

Environment:
Operating system: Mac OSX 10.15.6
Firefox version: :Firefox Nightly 94.0a1 (2021-09-21) (64-bit)

Preconditions:
ETP set to STRICT
Clean profile

Steps to reproduce:

1. Navigate to : https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-domestic-terrorism-timeline-charlottesville-jan-6-capitol-riot-224437671.html
2. Scroll the page
3. Observe the picture placeholder from the article

Expected Behavior:
The picture loads

Actual Behavior:
The picture does not load

Notes:

• Not reproducible with ETP set to STANDARD
• Works as expected using Safari
• Screenshot attached
• Might be related to :https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1709612

Comment 1

[Thomas Wisniewski [:twisniewski]]

The pictures seem to be working for me on Firefox 93 and nightly, in strict mode ETP or not. Is it working for you now as well, Raul?

Comment 2

[Raul Bucata]

This is a weird one. The picture does not load for me regardless of the status of ETP on a Mac device, but loads just fine on a Windows machine.

Comment 3

[Thomas Wisniewski [:twisniewski]]

Ah, yes, this seems very intermittent! I actually just reproduced it once right now on my Macbook, and saw a web console error about "r3px" (but lost the precise details, unfortunately). Since I see no reference to r3px in their code anymore right now, and can't reproduce it again, this could be anything from a specific ad-provider being blocked, to Yahoo running A/B tests or having a rare script race condition.

Raul, could you maybe check the web console logs for errors when it's breaking, and confirm if you see an r3px (or other) error? If so, could you right-click on any errors, "copy message", and paste them here (and take a screenshot of the devtools just in case)? If I can get at least the line and column number of the error, and the URL for that script, I might be able to grab a copy of the script and diagnose this further. Thanks!

Comment 4

[Raul Bucata]

Tom, I do not see any r3px error, just the following errors:

1. "The character encoding of the plain text document was not declared. The document will render with garbled text in some browser configurations if the document contains characters from outside the US-ASCII range. The character encoding of the file needs to be declared in the transfer protocol or file needs to use a byte order mark as an encoding signature. csync"

2. "darla csc writer, potential invalid html content"

The above mentioned errors are present in the provided screenshot, were I have managed to receive multiple errors, but by the time I've went to the console to copy them, they were gone. Like you've said, the errors are itermittent on my part as well:

https://imgur.com/a/ZHwEKDe

Comment 5

[Thomas Wisniewski [:twisniewski]]

Ouch. My best guess at this point is that it all depends on which ad service (or even precise ad) is being chosen by the page, and you are having all of the bad luck so far in being hit. Perhaps :pbz or someone else in the EU will have an easier time reproducing the error than I will, but from the errors you noted above I can't be sure what the problem is.

Paul, do you have any better luck reproducing this one?

Comment 6

[Paul Zühlcke [:pbz]]

I can reproduce. The image does not load after the initial load which will require the user to accept the cookie banner. However, reloading fixes it. If I clear site data and the cookie banner appears again, the image will also break again.
The image request itself seems to work. Maybe the code that lazy-loads it breaks. No obvious error messages.

Comment 7

[Thomas Wisniewski [:twisniewski]]

I just tried this with a German VPN and the problem isn't happening for me; the consent banner appears, and when I click it the page appears to reload. Paul, could you confirm if this is fixed for you as well?

Comment 8

[Paul Zühlcke [:pbz]]

Fixed for me too! 🥳

Comment 9

[Thomas Wisniewski [:twisniewski]]

Alright, how about you, Raul? If it's also working for you now, let's close as WORKSFORME.

Comment 10

[Raul Bucata]

Yes, Thomas, this seems to be fixed for me as well.