Closed Bug 724423 Opened 12 years ago Closed 10 years ago

Large number of favicons are being generated for some users in the jumpListCache (for example: 12,344 )

Categories

(Core :: Widget: Win32, defect)

Product:
Core
Component:
Widget: Win32
Version:
16 Branch
Platform:
x86_64
Windows 7
Type:
defect
Priority:
Not set
Severity:
normal

Tracking

()

Status:
VERIFIED FIXED
Milestone:
mozilla32

People

(Reporter: u434858, Assigned: bbondy)

References

Details

Attachments

(5 files)

Screenshot Showing Some of the Duplicate Favicons
333.30 KB, image/jpeg
Details
more than 300 icons in two days
1.93 MB, image/jpeg
Details
Everything --> firefox jumplist
695.03 KB, image/jpeg
Details
8700+ items when not taken care for 2 years...
17.69 KB, image/png
Details
bug724423_favicons.diff
4.17 KB, patch
jimm
: review+
Details | Diff | Splinter Review 
User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:10.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/10.0
Build ID: 20120129021758

Steps to reproduce:

OS: Windows 7
Firefox Settings: Clear history when Firefox closing checked off to clear browsing history, download history, form & search history, active logins, and cache.

Steps: 
1) Open Firefox and browse a variety of website
2) Close Firefox
3) Open enter into the following folder:
C:\Users\[User Name]\AppData\Local\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\[unique strong of characters].default\jumpListCache




Actual results:

Observe multitudes of small images, which appear to be favicons.  These aren't being cleared and multiples of the same image are showing up.  e.g. After clearing this folder and browsing, including opening and closing the browser multiple times during this session, I have 118 such images of which 43 are identical Google favicons.  Note that I only visited 3 or 4 *.google.com.  Google was one of several website with multiple of the same images.  In total I visited under 15 different websites.


Expected results:

There shouldn't be anywhere this number of duplicates.  

Clearing Firefox history should clear these files.  Even though the files are small, before I deleted them manually, there were thousands of them taking up several megabytes of space.

Note: This could be a privacy risk as these favicons could reviewed to determine what websites that a user has been visiting
This still happens in Firefox 13.0.1.
This still happens in Firefox 15.0.1.

Is there a way to prevent favicons from being stored in the "jumpListCache" folder and instead being held in memory?
Component: Untriaged → Bookmarks & History
Version: 10 Branch → 16 Branch
Still happens in Firefox 18.0.1.
I use CCleaner and it takes a while to overwrite HUNDREDS of these files on a fast computer with a nice Intel SSD. I have Firefox set to clear the cache on exit, but these things are there every time. I just cleared it and there are already 15 files in there. 4 are from Google, 4 are from Yahoo and the rest look like Bugzilla icons. Firefox 18.0.1.
Still happens in Firefox 18. On Fridays in the afternoon, I do some maintenance and delete those icons. Two days later, lots of new icons have appeared: Various BING, SPON (german news site), Amazon, Allmusic, Google, at least a dozen of each. I think this is a serious privacy issue.
This bug is in the wrong place, looks like it's the widget code storing these cached values (though not sure if would be better to invoke a clear function from the frontend module).
Component: Bookmarks & History → Widget: Win32
Product: Firefox → Core
Status: UNCONFIRMED → NEW
Ever confirmed: true
Keywords: privacy
Let's handle the case of favicons not always being cleared here. 
The duplicate images is because they come from different URLs.   If you want please post a new bug for that along the lines of:
Implement single instance storage for jump list favicons.
Summary: jumpListCache folder containing favicons is not being cleared and storing multitudes of duplicate images → jumpListCache folder containing favicons is not being cleared
discfest@gmail.com, did you by chance change the value of: browser.taskbar.lists.recent.enabled
?

Otherwise I'm not sure why you have so many entries.
(In reply to Brian R. Bondy [:bbondy] from comment #8)
> discfest@gmail.com, did you by chance change the value of:
> browser.taskbar.lists.recent.enabled
> ?
> 
> Otherwise I'm not sure why you have so many entries.

No, I didn't change any settings.
Thanks, so your Firefox jump list has a "Frequent" and "Tasks" section right?
Wow, mine have 2392 files and i clean Firefox every day

My browser.taskbar.lists.recent.enabled is Predetermined - False
So it sounds like there is some bug at play, my jump list folder only has 8 entries in it. Does your frequent list constantly change by chance? Are the entries almost always different as you browser the web?
I don't Know, i don't use the jumplist feature, but sorry, i just changed to latest Firefox 24 and deleted my profile, since it had incompatible addons with firefox 24 i stared from scratch, lets see if happens again, so far i can get 20 from just a couple hours of use, but they are being deleted correctly with the Delete history feature, still needs a "Single instance storage" tho, since im running on a SSD and is unhealthy for it.
comment #2
> This still happens in Firefox 15.0.1.
> 
> Is there a way to prevent favicons from being stored in the "jumpListCache"
> folder and instead being held in memory?

Stopped happening in Firefox 21.0

Started happening again in Firefox 22.0
Still happening with firefox 24.0
My system: 64 bit Windows 7. Using 2 firefox profiles. Default profile with 24.0 Firefox is having this problem.
[Solved]
Go to about:Config
Set "browser.taskbar.lists.enabled" to False
Now there will be no more new Flavicons in the folder.

This will also turn off the the "Open new tab," or "reopen last session."  from showing in the taskbar.
Jack,

I don't think people would want to completely disable jumplists to work around this problem. Jumplists are nice - getting excessive amounts of icon files is not. ;)
I agree that this should be fixed, and I agree that a better work around is needed. It's just a matter of fitting in the time for a fix.  Hopefully someone can come along and pick it up before I have time for it.
(In reply to Brian R. Bondy [:bbondy] from comment #18)
> I agree that this should be fixed, and I agree that a better work around is
> needed. It's just a matter of fitting in the time for a fix.  Hopefully
> someone can come along and pick it up before I have time for it.

Brian, thank you for looking after this issue. Unfortunately, this bug is persisting for at least 18 months and 15 versions of Firefox. So it would be time to fix this. From my point of view, it should be as easy as clearing the cache ("when I quit Firefox, it should automatically clear all ..."). Also from my point of view, privacy is affected, as I stated earlier.

I'm attaching another screenshot with 267 icons. All of these entries were created between Nov 30 and Dec 02.

    
    

    
  
Comment on attachment 8341240 [details]
Everything --> firefox jumplist

Seems we have some more directories with jumplists ...

    
    

    
  
Having the same problem with most current version (26.0) on Windows 7 Pro 32bit, Windows 7 Home 64bit, Windows 8 Home 64bit.

    
    

    
  
This bug causes significant slowdowns and stuttering on Firefox startup if there are more than around 1000 items in that folder. Firefox 28.

    
    

    
  
btw, the functionality lost by disabling jumplists as explained in comment 16 can be "restored" (more like added again from a different source) using an extension called Tab Mix Plus that has such features.

    
    

    
  
Can someone please add "x86_64 Windows 8" to Platform (description table at the top of the page) as well as this also effects both 64 bit and 32 bit versions of Windows 8

    
    

    
  
Still happens in Aurora 31.
I just stumbled upon this folder while looking into my profile folder. I have more than 8000 items!!! I never noticed that before today, the oldest ones are 2 years old!!! And it takes 35 MB on my hard drive for a real 4 MB (windows' fault, I know)
And I clean my browser history and cache everyday. Which might make things worse, as aurora might just add new files everyday from sites that were already there (just a supposition, but it would be consistent with the several identical icons).

That's a security issue, because the favicons are easily recongnizable and thus a partial history can be recovered (by someone having physical access to my computer)

    
    

    
  
A temporary fix is to delete the folder, create a file of the same name and (maybe not needed but) right click the new file, properties -> tick read-only.

Works for all kinds of annoying programs writing pointless **** to the hdd/sdd.

    
    

    
  
(In reply to Flore Allemandou from comment #26)
> That's a security issue, because the favicons are easily recongnizable and
> thus a partial history can be recovered (by someone having physical access
> to my computer)

I wanted to write privacy and not security. A slip of the keyboard.

Thank you for the tip, kie000, but the goal here is to get this fixed in Firefox. Nonetheless, I keep the idea for other programs that might do the same, as a quick and dirty fix :)

    
    

    
  
Adding qawanted to see if we can reproduce this in house. It seems to not be present on all computers.
Keywords: qawanted

    
    

    
  
Oh my god i totally forgot about this, now that i checked again i had 12,344 files inside, jesus, i thought it was gone but nope, my system still is the same installation than before, windows 7 x64 sp1 (Now on FF32) and i clean my cache every single day, im not much on the privacy concern side but im running on a ssd, so this is pretty bad for it, at least it should be on a single file if possible, if not then should be a way to really disable the feature.

    
    

    
  
I'm somewhat frustrated. As I stated earlier, we are discussing this bug for two years and 15 (!!) versions of Firefox, and nothing has happened. Nothing.

OK, we have some "workarounds" here. I myself have a workaround (start a DOS Batch every 24 hours via task scheduler), but that's not the point. The point is that we got a serious privacy issue here because one can easily analyze another person's "history" by looking at those icons. Harsh words, but I stick to it.

Deleting those icons should be _as_easy_as_ clearing the cache ("when I quit Firefox, it should automatically clear all ..."). Will someone please care about this, finally?

    
    

    
  
I don't think there is a privacy issue here because the data is stored in the user profile which is not accessible to other users.

:mak I noticed that you put privacy in the whiteboard, could you explain why you think this is a privacy issue?

If a user has access to the filesystem for the user profile, they can also copy the firefox profile to their profile and just start firefox and see the full history.  Users could also open the places sqlite file and see data there. 

---

Martin and  airecamaps I'll try to look into the issue of having a lot of icons again, but I haven't been able to reproduce. I'll start by analyzing the code though.
Assignee: nobody → netzen
Flags: needinfo?(mak77)

    
    

    
  
I think it's marked a privacy issue because they don't get cleared regardless of settings (clear on shutdown), if I understood this correctly? In that case, clearing recent history is moot because the icons are a dead giveaway what has been visited.

    
    

    
  
@ Brian R. Bondy [:bbondy]
How is this not a privacy issue? I can go to any of my friends computers and look at all the websites that they have ever access using Mozilla, even though they have been clearing their history. This is a privacy issue. Period.

I have installed Mozilla on 11 different computer, Windows 7 and 8, 32 bit and 64 bit. I have seen this on computers with a single user profile and multiple profiles. I have seen this issue on 15 different version of Firefox including the most current. I have seen this issue occur with a wide array of privacy settings. This is a pervasive issue affecting Mozilla. I am not sure how it is that you are not able to reproduce this issue.

    
    

    
  
@ airecamaps 

[Temporary solution]
Go to about:Config
Set "browser.taskbar.lists.enabled" to False
Now there will be no more new Flavicons in the folder.

    
  
Blocks: 1008620

    
    

    
  
Thanks for explaining guys, the issue about privacy is a bit different than this bug so I posted this bug to cover that:
Bug 1008620 - Clearing history should also clear jump list cache on Windows

That in particular, I would have no problem reproducing, so I'll fix that first. Thanks for taking the time to write comments in the bug to push a resolution on this bug.

    
  
Keywords: privacy

    
    

    
  
@ Brian R. Bondy [:bbondy]

I have tried to see which setting reproduce this issue.
OS: Windows 7 home premium (64bit) - Service pack 1
Firefox: 29.01
Folder in which Favicons appear: C:\Users\"windows user"\AppData\Local\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\"Firefox user"\jumpListCache

Setting that affect favicons: Privacy settings, Time
1A. Privacy Setting: Remember History -> Favicons appear in folder
1B. Privacy setting: Custom History (even if "Clear History when Firefox Closes" is ticked, and all sub-menu History and Data are ticked) -> Favicons appear in folder
1C. Privacy Setting: Never remember history -> No new Favicons in folder

2. Time: Favicons only appear in the jumplistcache folder, 2 minutes after visiting a website (When using custom history or remember history setting). If browser is closed before 2 minutes, no new favicons appear in the folder.

Setting that don't effect favicons: Pinning Firefox to taskbar

    
  
Flags: needinfo?(mak77)

    
    

    
  
Awesome thanks Jack, I'll cover the privacy issues in bug 1008620 and leave this bug open for the multitude of favicon duplicates being generated.

    
  
Summary: jumpListCache folder containing favicons is not being cleared → Large number of favicons are being generated for some users in the jumpListCache (for example: 12,344 )

    
    

    
  
@ Brian R. Bondy [:bbondy]
I think, it would be better to change title of this thread to "Clearing history should also clear jump list cache on Windows" and delete Bug 1008620.

Large number of favicons are being generated for some users in the jumpListCache is not the problem, it is a byproduct. Once the issue of having the favicons not being deleted when history is cleared is resolved, the issue of large number of favicons will also be resolved.

    
    

    
  
The issue in this bug is when you have Remember History setting on, there should only be a few favicons, not 1200.  For example on my computer I have Remember History but I only have 8 favicons. I think there are 2 distinct issues here so it would be best to cover them in distinct bugs.

    
    

    
  
(In reply to Brian R. Bondy [:bbondy] from comment #33)
> I don't think there is a privacy issue here because the data is stored in
> the user profile which is not accessible to other users.

It's surely true that this folder isn't visible on a network. But what if I do some maintenance on my girlfriend's computer just to find out she's visiting a lot of dating sites?

    
    

    
  
Then you can also open her browser and check her history....
For clearing history see bug 1008620.

    
    

    
  
Update for those affected:
I have a fix for this that I'm just finishing testing on. Will have it up for review soon.

    
    

    
  


  

        Attachment #8428244 -
        Flags: review?(jmathies)

    
    

    
  
Comment on attachment 8428244 [details] [diff] [review]
bug724423_favicons.diff

Review of attachment 8428244 [details] [diff] [review]:
-----------------------------------------------------------------

Does the current list of icons get flushed to disc every time? Otherwise it seems like you might delete something still in use.

        Attachment #8428244 -
        Flags: review?(jmathies) → review+

    
    

    
  
It gets flushed to disk every FaviconHelper::GetICOCacheSecondsTimeout().
I think it's OK because we don't delete unless the modified time is older than FaviconHelper::GetICOCacheSecondsTimeout() + 10min.  
And we always regenerate before hitting this delete code.

    
    

    
  
http://hg.mozilla.org/integration/mozilla-inbound/rev/6533fc1ea789
Keywords: qawanted
Target Milestone: --- → mozilla32

    
    

    
  
Backed out of inbound for now because of a win8 intermittent assertion failure that surfaced that didn't show up on try.

https://tbpl.mozilla.org/?tree=Mozilla-Inbound&rev=6533fc1ea789
Will investigate and re-land once the change is fixed / reviewed.

    
  
Depends on: 1018598

    
    

    
  
Just to give an update here, I found an issue unrelated to this patch, but that this patch uncovered. I'm landing that in bug 1018598 and then I'll land this patch again.

    
    

    
  
https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/26bafa7a6c1e
Status: NEW → RESOLVED
Closed: 10 years ago
Resolution: --- → FIXED

    
    

    
  
This has reduced the batch of icons I had in the jumpListCache folder of my main profile from around 20 or 30 to just 7.
Status: RESOLVED → VERIFIED

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