Rework blanket general.useragent.override pref

Let me repeat my reply, since you clearly can’t wait 5 minutes for an answer.

Actually, for web compatibility reasons, it is about request headers. The blanket override is a terrible footgun.

Off-topic for this issue:
Also, I don’t actually see why we need overrides for buildID and oscpu outside of a testing/debugging environment - seems they were added by Mozilla for just that, too. If you want to toss it up for privacy, then you may as well demand we add pref overrides for all the other properties of the Navigator object (because there are more unique values to be found there than what OS and what browser build you are using).
Either way, that would be something for a different issue.

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Several reasons:

This is a terrible Web Compat footgun
It causes confusion as to which pref has priority (are SSUAOs overridden by this pref?)
This should be done with finer granularity on a per-request basis, which can easily be done with a targeted extension manipulating request headers.

These things will have to be mitigated application-side.
Pref needs to be reworked to distance UXP from fallacies in mozilla-central development and the resulting unmaintained Firefox extensions, to neuter them.

Moonchild added the

C: Networking

label 7 months ago

Web Compatibility

Moonchild self-assigned this 7 months ago

Let me repeat my forum post. The point is, it’s not only about request headers, but also about the navigator object. And being able to control general.buildID.override, general.oscpu.override, and general.useragent.override is pretty important for setting up a privacy-enhanced environment. Please don’t cut it out of the browser core.

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Moonchild referenced this issue from a commit 7 months ago

Issue #1684 - Remove global UA override preference and supporting code. Resolves #1684

Moonchild closed this issue 7 months ago

If you want to provide reasons aside from “my old firefox extensions” or “I want it” to keep/restore this preference, then by all means weigh in on the issue on the forum where this is being discussed. Reasons for removing it have been given in comment 0
https://forum.palemoon.org/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=25624&start=20#p203598

Revert "Issue #1684 - Remove global UA override preference and supporting code." This reverts commit 18df01eb5498c954044f96c346026da0238d2e61. Backed out for devtools breakage.

Backed out for devtools breakage.

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Moonchild reopened this issue 7 months ago

Following the discussion on the forum this issue will be repurposed.

Moonchild changed title from ~~Remove blanket general.useragent.override pref~~ to Rework blanket general.useragent.override pref 7 months ago

Moonchild referenced this issue from MoonchildProductions/Pale-Moon 7 months ago

Add warning for general user-agent override being active. #1851

Issue #1684 - Move global user-agent override to networking component. Since this is a http protocol networking feature, it belongs in the networking branch of our preferences.

Moonchild referenced this issue from a commit 4 months ago

Issue #1741 - Follow-up: Remove superfluous prefobserver This one is no longer necessary (and incorrect) after the changes made in #1684

#1684 Rework blanket general.useragent.override pref