320231 - add localization notes for length-limited PKCS#11 strings in pipnss.properties

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Core :: Security: PSM, defect, P5)

Description

[Giacomo Magnini]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; it-IT; rv:1.8) Gecko/20051206 SeaMonkey/1.0b
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; it-IT; rv:1.8) Gecko/20051206 SeaMonkey/1.0b

When using a localized version of SM, the password prompt for the security device is being cut at the end. The CertPassPrompt string is ok (that is, is shown fully), but the substitution for the included %S seems to fail for some reason (that is, the last char is being cut).
As an example, if I try to export a personal certificate, the dialog shows the problem (under it-IT): the PrivateTokenDescription entity (in Italian: "Dispositivo di sicurezza") which is used in the dialog shows up as "Dispositivo di sicurezz".

Reproducible: Always




Under guidance from dveditz over IRC, I've tried adding "xxx" at the end of PvtTknDesc, but the outcome doesn't change.
If I change the string to "Dispositivo xxx", it shows up fully in the dialog.
I have tried also adding a space before the fullstop in CertPassPrompt, but it didn't help with the failing substitution (but showed up correctly in the dialog after the cutten string).
Also, dveditz can't see any string limit (nor it is reported as a LOCALIZATION NOTE in the pipnss.properties file) anywhere in the code, which was my first wild guess at first.
I also checked the translated file with a hex editor to see if any extraneous char was added, and saw none.
I've still one or two tests I'd like to do, and report back the outcome.

Comment 1

[Giacomo Magnini]

More findings, on the left the string for PrivateTokenDescription, on the right the outcome in the dialog:
"Dispositivo di abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz" -> "Dispositivo di abcdefghijklmnopq"
"Dispositivo abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz"    -> "Dispositivo abcdefghijklmnopqrst"
"Dispositivo sicurezza"                     -> "Dispositivo sicurezza"

This makes me think there is actually a real limit on the substitution string of around 32 chars. If you agree, then the limit should be removed, or, if it is a security concern, a LOCALIZATION NOTE should be added to the relevant entries (probably more than only PrivateTokenDescription...) in pipnss.properties and maybe even pippki.properties.

Before someone asks (and I foget), CertPassPrompt has got %S (capital) also in the translated version.

Comment 2

[Giacomo Magnini]

Need to correct my comment 0: it's not "Dispositivo di sicurezza", but it's "Dispositivo di sicurezza software", and it gets truncated as "Dispositivo di sicurezza softwar" (missing last "e").
More evidence of a 32 chars limit for the string...

Comment 3

[Stephen Donner [:stephend] Not actively reading bugmail]

see also bug 317630

Comment 4

[Daniel Veditz [:dveditz]]

Yeah, I bet you're right

Comment 5

[Steffen Wilberg]

See bug 90956 comment 21 why some of the strings are truncated at 32 bytes and others at 64 bytes. That's defined in PKCS #11, which is an industry standard API.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PKCS

That bug also added the following comment to pipnss.properties:
# the following strings have special requirements:
# they must fit in a 32 or 64 byte buffer after being translated
# to UTF8.  Note to translator. It's not easy for you to figure
# whether the escaped unicode string you produce will fit in 
# the space allocated.
http://lxr.mozilla.org/seamonkey/source/security/manager/locales/en-US/chrome/pipnss/pipnss.properties#44

Comment 6

[Giacomo Magnini]

Can we mark this bug as WONTFIX/INVALID?

Comment 7

[Axel Hecht [:Pike]]

Actually, it looks like we should revisit our localizations and check which are broken, and get bugs on individual locales filed.

I don't have time to do this this week, and my head is going to drop it by then, probably, thus adding a helpwanted keyword.

Comment 8

[Giacomo Magnini]

Please use the standard notation for localization warnings:
LOCALIZAION NOTE (<entityname>): <explanation>
This will help a lot with automated tools, thanks!

Comment 9

[Michele Dal Corso]

In the Italian branch 1.8 (for Firefox and Thunderbird 2) the string is:

Disp. di sicurezza software
http://lxr.mozilla.org/l10n-mozilla1.8/source/it/security/manager/chrome/pipnss/pipnss.properties#47

so it complies with the 32 characters limit.

Comment 10

[Kai Engert (:KaiE:)]

reassign bug owner.
mass-update-kaie-20120918

Comment 11

[Dana Keeler (she/her) (use needinfo) (:keeler for reviews)]

See comment 8.

Comment 12

[Francesco Lodolo [:flod]]

Attachment: Bug 320231 - Update localization notes for length-limited PKCS#11 strings in pipnss.properties

Review commit: https://reviewboard.mozilla.org/r/205156/diff/#index_header
See other reviews: https://reviewboard.mozilla.org/r/205156/

Comment 13

[Axel Hecht [:Pike]]

Comment on attachment 8934231 [details]
Bug 320231 - Update localization notes for length-limited PKCS#11 strings in pipnss.properties

https://reviewboard.mozilla.org/r/205156/#review211390

This is basically OK, but I'd like to have some more machine-readable comments, and I think we can do that without making this much harder to read. For one, can we put the whole sentence in one line, so that we don't line-break it at different places? And put the number and unit at the end? Something like

    # LOCALIZATION NOTE (RootCertModuleName):
    # string limit after conversion to UTF-8: 64 bytes

Comment 14

[Francesco Lodolo [:flod]]

Comment on attachment 8934231 [details]
Bug 320231 - Update localization notes for length-limited PKCS#11 strings in pipnss.properties

Review request updated; see interdiff: https://reviewboard.mozilla.org/r/205156/diff/1-2/

Comment 15

[Francesco Lodolo [:flod]]

Updated per IRC discussion with something that clearly looks like a directive, and should be easier to parse.

Comment 16

[Axel Hecht [:Pike]]

Comment on attachment 8934231 [details]
Bug 320231 - Update localization notes for length-limited PKCS#11 strings in pipnss.properties

https://reviewboard.mozilla.org/r/205156/#review211434

Comment 17

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/a74542182b97
Update localization notes for length-limited PKCS#11 strings in pipnss.properties r=Pike

Comment 18

[Dorel Luca [:dluca]]

https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/a74542182b97