539296 - Does registerProtocolHandler() violate Private Browsing mode?

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

Description

[Daniel Veditz [:dveditz]]

Web sites can register a protocol handler as a short-hand.

navigator.registerProtocolHandler("porn",
                                  "https://www.pornsite.com/tinyurl?page=%s",
                                  "Porn shortener");

The user does get a prompt (infobar) asking whether they want to save this, but they may not realize this is saving stuff on disk. For passwords we chose to suppress the infobar, and in the password case I would think users would have a better chance of realizing it requires storage.

We need to consider whether the behavior is OK or if we want to make a change during private mode.

https://developer.mozilla.org/en/Web-based_protocol_handlers

Comment 1

[:Ehsan Akhgari]

I would say that we probably shouldn't prompt to register protocol handlers in private browsing mode at all, because I don't think users would understand the privacy risks of registering one inside the private browsing mode.

Working on a patch.

Comment 2

[:Ehsan Akhgari]

Created attachment 422261 [details] [diff] [review]
Patch (v1)

Comment 3

[:Ehsan Akhgari]

http://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/efbae83be6af