498356 - Multiple proxy authentication windows after Firefox update

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 348997

(Firefox :: Security, defect)

Description

[Joel C. Ewing]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.0.11) Gecko/2009060215 Firefox/3.0.11
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.0.11) Gecko/2009060215 Firefox/3.0.11

When running Firefox behind an authenticating proxy server, after a Firefox auto-update, first time Firefox is restarted (with no saved tabs) get multiple proxy authentication logon windows and also a buried window for checking for plugin updates.  Takes somewhere between 10 - 30 authentication "cancels" to break out of the sequence.  Actually keying response to each logon request takes long enough and so many keep reappearing, have never had time and patience to see if that will also break out of the sequence.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1.Run Firefox with Internet access behind an authenticating proxy server.
2.Get message that Firefox update received and will be installed at Firefox restart
3.Restart Firefox (without saving tabs)
Actual Results:  
Immediately on Firefox start-up, screen is cluttered with multiple proxy logon windows.

Expected Results:  
Firefox should display the proxy authentication window at first Internet access, but then realize it already has a Proxy authentication window pending a response and wait for some response to that before taking further actions that could result in redundant proxy logon requests.

A similar multiplicity of proxy logon windows can occur if using Firefox to browse local html not requiring proxy access as follows:  If you leave the Firefox session unattended it appears that some automatic periodic process eventually causes it to make an Internet access request through the proxy resulting in the proxy logon prompt.  If you notice the single logon window and respond to it, all is fine and that is the only proxy logon window for the rest of the session.  If you do not see the request and fail to respond for a long enough time (less than an hour), when you return, again there are many, many proxy logon windows and the only reasonable alternative is to cancel all the logon windows.
This is not a new bug.  It has been in all Ver 3 releases, but I definitely remember there were older versions of Firefox that didn't have these problems.

Comment 2

[Joel C. Ewing]

While I don't dispute that the root cause of this could be identical with problem reported by 348997, the description of 348997 implies this issue only happens when the user has multiple tabs open, whereas in both cases cited above the user only has a single tab open.  The problem appears to be broader than described in 348997.

Comment 3

[Matthias Versen [:Matti]]

multiple homepages are another example, they are all the same cause that one password dialog doesn't block all others.

Comment 4

[Sharique uddin Ahmed Farooqui]

I'm having same problem, but it happens with me in every version (all 3.5)