452109 - Cannot log in to Merrill Lynch site

Status: RESOLVED INVALID

(Firefox :: File Handling, defect)

Description

[Susan Forste]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10.4; en-US; rv:1.9.0.1) Gecko/2008070206 Firefox/3.0.1
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10.4; en-US; rv:1.9.0.1) Gecko/2008070206 Firefox/3.0.1

The log in page for Merrill Lynch does not work in Firefox 3.01. I tested several times and called Merrill Lynch about it. Finally I switched to Safari, which worked. What should happen: When you type in your ID, the field for the password should disappear. Then you click continue to go to the next round of questioning.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
I think I said as much as I can in the field above. 
Actual Results:  
What happens instead in FF 3.01: The password field does not disappear and an error message appears.

Expected Results:  
(stated above)

Merrill Lynch has recently changed their security system. 

In FF, the password field remains on the page, but it should not (the ML representative said this). If I type my password into that field, I still cannot log into my account. So the problem seems to be related to whatever automates the disappearance of the password field.

Comment 1

[Ria Klaassen (not reading all bugmail)]

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.0.1) Gecko/2008070208 Firefox/3.0.1

This works fine for me, so it might affect Mac only.
Have you tried also it safe-mode? http://kb.mozillazine.org/Safe_Mode_(Firefox)

Comment 2

[Steven Michaud [:smichaud] (Retired)]

Attachment: Safari's user agent string

Comment 3

[Steven Michaud [:smichaud] (Retired)]

This problem is Merrill Lynch's fault, and therefore invalid.  Please
report it to Merrill Lynch.  When you do so, please refer to this bug.

This bug's URL displays differently depending on which browser you use
to visit it.  The URL's page(s) include code that checks what kind of
browser you have, by looking at the user agent string.  Depending on
what this code finds, it makes the URL display like it does in Safari
(and in Firefox on Windows), or like it does in Firefox on OS X and
Linux.

If you change Firefox on OS X to use Safari's user agent string, this
bug's URL displays the same way it does in Safari.  I also presume it
works the same ... though since I don't have a Merrill Lynch account I
can't tell.

Here's how to change Firefox's user agent string to be the same as
Safari's.  Do this just as an experiment, and then change things back.
It's probably not best to leave things this way.

1) Enter about:config in Firefox's location bar.

2) Right-click (or ctrl-click) somewhere in the page (below
   "Preference Name"), then choose New : String.

3) For the "preference name", type general.useragent.override and
   click OK.

4) In the next box that appears (for the preference value), paste in
   the text from attachment 337153 [details] and click OK.

To undo this setting, do the following:

1) Enter about:config in Firefox's location bar.

2) Type useragent in the Filter box.

3) Right-click (or ctrl-click) on general.useragent.override and
   choose Reset.

Comment 4

[David Charlap]

A workaround, for anyone else reading this bug report.

The ML login sequence (at least for me) works this way:

1: You visit http://mlol.ml.com

2: It redirects to http://www.newmlol.ml.com

3: When you click the "login" button, you are taken to https://www.fs.ml.com/login/login.asp?site=mlol

4: That page immediately redirects to https://olui1.fs.ml.com/Login/Login.aspx where the login system runs.

This is what happens in Safari and on Firefox for Windows.  Using Firefox on Mac OS X, step 4 doesn't happen.  You end up left on the old login page, which doesn't support ML's new authentication system.

As a workaround, you can simply bookmark https://olui1.fs.ml.com/Login/Login.aspx and go there directly.  That page does work correctly in Firefox on Mac OS X.