444732 - Problem with external password keeper hotkey, shortcut, with FF3, keyboard, tabs, keyboard stuffing (auto-type)

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Firefox :: Keyboard Navigation, defect)

Description

[Malcolm Reeves]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-GB; rv:1.9) Gecko/2008052906 Firefox/3.0
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-GB; rv:1.9) Gecko/2008052906 Firefox/3.0

I use freeware PINs 4.50 to save my username/password.  This worked fine on FF2.  It has a system hotkey of CTRL+Y to run a per entry script which typically stuffs the keyboard buffer with <username><tab><password><enter> to automate login to sites (I know this is still weak for keyloggers).

First problem is that FF3 grabs ctrl+Y and I can't change that.  Hotkeys should be user configurable.  Luckily in PINs they are so I can change that but it means I have to relearn a key set I've used for ages rather than lose redo which I've never used.  BTW I tried keyconfig but ctrl+Y is one key set it can't change it would seem.

Second, and major problem, is that this still doesn't work right even with PINs on a different hotkey.  My first theory was that when using say crtl+L when I released the L and PINs stuffed the keyboard buffer then FF3 still saw the ctrl key as down so interpreted the <username><tab><password><enter> oddly.  What happens is that the right data appears in the form.  FF3 logs into the site, but the tab is changed to another one or a closed tab is re-opened.  Since ctrl+tab switches tabs this looked a likely theory.  Having the hotkey as alt+L say was even worse as alt is the way to access the main menus and the results seem to confirm that.

My work around was to use hotkey F9.  That seems to work, but only some of the time.  On a fresh browser the login goes ok.  But on a browser with multiple tabs open FF3 changes focus to another tab and reloads it

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Get Pins 4.50 (freeware), set its superpaste hotkey to F9.
2. Enter login details for a site into PINs
3. Open fresh FF3.  Open the site in two tabs
4. Close first tab and use PINs hotkey to login on second tab 
Actual Results:  
Login happens on second tab.  FF3 reopens closed fist tab and switches focus to it. 

Expected Results:  
FF3 should not open closed tab nor switch focus.

URL for PINs http://www.mirekw.com/winfreeware/pins.html

I also have undo closed tabs add-on but I can't find any hotkeys for that so it shouldn't be responding to F9.  It may be that this is part of the problem, at least for this.  But FF3 key handling is not well behaved.  FF3 has problems with keyboard stuffing programs which FF2 didn't and this needs to be looked at.  Using F9 is a work around for the ctrl/alt problem but it is not ideal.  Whatever has changed on the keyboard handling from FF2 to FF3 has made the keyboard handling non-standard to how windows normally works and it is likely to break other automation programs.

Comment 1

[Malcolm Reeves]

OK.  The bug has now gone away and I now see it was not a Firefox bug at all DOH!.  I was running comodo firewall with defence+ (seemed to slow things down and have lots of pop-ups).  I've uninstalled that and now the bug has gone away so I think it was defence+ screwing the keyboard handling.  I've also dropped web shield and web link check off AVG 8, my anti-virus, (also slows down browsing) but I  don't think they were the cause.  Defence+ seems more probable.