1780833 - Incorrect useragent string

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 1862395

(SeaMonkey :: General, defect)

Description

[Chris Ross]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; Win64; x64; rv:-1.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/-1.0

Steps to reproduce:

Start Seamonkey

Actual results:

about: (as well as any site reporting the user agent string) shows
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; Win64; x64; rv:-1.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/-1.0

Expected results:

The user agent should be something more like
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:102.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/102.0
(copied from Firefox on the same machine).
Obviously the Windows and Firefox versions could be different - but anything but "-1"!
Setting general.useragent.override in about:config or user.js has no effect.

Comment 1

[Chris Ross]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; Win64; x64; rv:-1.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/-1.0

Steps to reproduce:

Start Seamonkey 2.53 under Windows 11

Actual results:

about: (as well as any site reporting the user agent string) shows
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; Win64; x64; rv:-1.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/-1.0
(as you can see)

Expected results:

The user agent should be something more like
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:102.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/102.0
(copied from Firefox on the same machine).
Obviously the Windows and Firefox versions could be different - but anything but "-1"!
Setting general.useragent.override in about:config or user.js has no effect.

Comment 2

[Frank-Rainer Grahl (:frg)]

Not sure what you use or how you did it but this is nothing SeaMonkey sets:

For 2.53.14b1 pre it is:
Windows 7 x64:
User agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; Win64; x64; rv:68.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/68.0 SeaMonkey/2.53.14

Windows 10 x64 and Server 20xx:
User agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:68.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/68.0 SeaMonkey/2.53.14

For 2.53.13 final replace the .14 with .13 and you have it.

Check in safe mode if you have an add-on which sets this.

Comment 3

[Chris Ross]

I installed Seamonkey (2.53.13 final under Windows 11) and looked at "About Seamonkey" in the help menu. Nothing else.
You can see what it shows.
The result is the same on any site that echoes the useragent string.

It is of no interest what Seamonkey should set: you can see the result.
And it can't be corrected.

Comment 4

[Frank-Rainer Grahl (:frg)]

Attachment: Capture.PNG

Windows 11 has the same agent as Windows 10.

This is soon to arrive 22H2. but should make no difference.

Comment 5

[Chris Ross]

Attachment: About_SM.png

Yeah, I can do that too.

Comment 6

[Frank-Rainer Grahl (:frg)]

Attachment: Capture.PNG

I switched to the french version and also the modern theme to see if it is something there but no dice. All I can say is that the 68.0 is currently hardcoded. SeaMonkey itself will never override it unless something in about configure is set. You probably have an add-on which does this. Try in safe mode or in a new test profile.

Comment 7

[Chris Ross]

I'll check that tomorrow (it's midnight here) but I can't see what add-on I have which would change that, nor why.
I'm wondering about the format of the string/number that displays "-1". Curious.
64 bits starting with 0xFFFF? - but I suppose it's a float or double: "68.0".
Or is already the string that is hard-coded?

I see it's exactly the same build.

Comment 8

[Frank-Rainer Grahl (:frg)]

String is hardcoded to 68.0 since 2.53.10
http://xr.binaryoutcast.com/seamonkey-2.53/source/mozilla/netwerk/protocol/http/nsHttpHandler.cpp#457

Wonder if you have turned on resist fingerprinting which might cause it. Not really supported right now.

FRG

Comment 9

[Chris Ross]

OK - that answers my question about how the version number is coded.

Yes, I had turned on anti-tracking, so I turned it off - but that didn't make any difference.
I also disactivated all my extensions - nada.

So I started in safe mode with the options I thought useful: and it worked.
I restarted in normal mode and it was still OK.
I put all my settings back to where they had been - still OK.

Then I realised that it had deleted all my mail and news settings: accounts and parameters (quite a lot).
Not willing to recreate all that by hand, I restored prefs.js from a backup and got them back. But I got the false useragent string back too.
So, we know where the problem is coming from - but not exactly. I have got to go through my prefs.js and work out which of the 1400 lines is responsable.

Comment 10

[Chris Ross]

Sorry for the delay: I have had major problems.
I have now pinpointed the source of the bug.
As FRG wondered, it is indeed fingerprint resisting which causes the error.
It is sufficient to set "privacy.resistFingerprinting" to "true" to change the "rv." in the UserAgent String from "68.0" to "-1".
This bug is therefore regularly repeatable, CONFIRMED and NOT RESOLVED
Thanks to all for your help.

Comment 11

[Chris Ross]

Thanks to Frank for pinpointing the cause of this bug - CONFIRMED, NOT RESOLVED.
Is there any chance that somebody might correct the resist fingerprinting option which is "Not really supported right now" or do we have to use Firefox which has an extension which blocks fingerprinting without changing the user agent?

Comment 14

[Chris Ross]

It's difficult to get some people to understand...
This bug is VERIFIED, CONFIRMED and NOT RESOLVED

If there is no intention to implement the «resist fingerprinting option which is "Not really supported right now"» that is a deliberate choice, and the option should be removed from the configuration, where it only leads to confusion and creates an unexpected malfunction of the program (B-U-G) which may not be noticed and systematically creates problems with certain sites.

Comment 15

[Robert Longson [:longsonr]]

1. This bug is resolved. It was resolved by a SeaMonkey contributor as invalid, that is resolved. You simply don't agree with the resolution.
2. Please read the etiquette on bugs. There's a link above every Add Comment box. Specifically...

No whining about decisions. If another project contributor has marked a bug as INVALID, then it is invalid. Filing another duplicate of it does not change this...

Comment 16

[Chris Ross]

Rubbish. It means that the other contributor failed to observe the bug, not that it has been resolved.
It is easily reproducible and any competent user of SeaMonkey should be able to follow the simple steps.
I repeat:

1. Click on "About Seamonkey" in the "?" menu. The User agent string is
   "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:123.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/123.0"
2. Go to "about:config". Filter for "fingerprinting". Double-click on "privacy.resistFingerprinting" to change it to true.
3. Return to "About Seamonkey". The User-agent string has now become
   "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; Win64; x64; rv:-1.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/-1.0"
   which is clearly incorrect and leads to an "unsupported browser" error on some sites.

The procedure and its effect can be reversed indefinitely.

If you can't follow these simple steps, don't make decisions.

Comment 17

[Frank-Rainer Grahl (:frg)]

Bug 1862395 has been opened some time ago and I plan to look into it. Should have reopend this one I know. The feature is not officially supported in SeaMonkey and I/we just don't have found the time yet to fix it up in the 2.53 branch.

Comment 18

[Chris Ross]

Thank you Frank-Rainer.
At least we know what the situation is.

Comment 19

[Sylvestre Ledru [:Sylvestre]]

Chris, This is a polite reminder that Bugzilla is our professional working environment as well as our issue tracker. I encourage you to review our Community Participation and Bugzilla Etiquette guidelines; comments that help move issues towards a resolution are always welcome. Comments that add nothing more than demands that a resolution occur, however, are not.