Bug #723
closedConnects to content-autofill.googleapis.com when tapping on an input field
0%
Description
Privacy Browser connects to content-autofill.googleapis.com
Connecting to thirdparty services is not what I expect from a privacy browser.
I think this behaviour must be deleted.
Files
| Requests Screenshot.png (141 KB) Requests Screenshot.png | |||
| Autofill Service.png (53.2 KB) Autofill Service.png | |||
| Screenshot_20231202-033957.png (146 KB) Screenshot_20231202-033957.png | Request observed from Rethink |
Updated by Soren Stoutner over 3 years ago
- Priority changed from 3.x to Next Release
I agree that this is very concerning.
What were you doing in the app when it tried to connect to content-autofill.googleapis.com?
What tool are you using to detect that Privacy Browser is attempting to connect to content-autofill.googleapis.com?
Updated by Zounp . over 3 years ago
Yes indeed, that is what you need to know.
I use the Netguard firewall on LineageOS 18 (Android 11) to see what is happening.
I will try to reproduce it.
Aha, I think I found it. An website of which I did not expect it.
In the mean time I noticed that, while I was testing with one website, two other domains appeared in the Netguard Privacy Browser section.
Those I have visited before but not while I was testing, nor had they any tabs open and I had Privacy browser exited with the Clear and Exit” section > Clear everything on (active).
I am struggling to understand the exact behavior of Netguard. I need to figure Netguard out before I can continue with reproducing (or not) the findings above.
This can take some time. Expect weeks.
Updated by Soren Stoutner over 3 years ago
- File Requests Screenshot.png Requests Screenshot.png added
Do you see these connections listed in the Requests section of Privacy Browser (see attached screenshot)? If not, that is very concerning, as Privacy Browser should initiate no network traffic that is not listed there. If you do see it, then the blame likely lies with the web developer of the site you are visiting.
I will keep this bug report open until I hear back from you with further information.
Updated by Zounp . over 3 years ago
If you mean: Menu with the 3 horizontal bars > Request-0 then no. I have not seen any entry there as long as I have been using Privacy Browser and looked there.
Updated by Soren Stoutner over 3 years ago
- File Autofill Service.png Autofill Service.png added
I would be interested in any URL that your firewall shows accessing content-autofill.googleapis.com which isn't listed in Requests.
Out of curiosity, are you using an OS level autofill service (see attached screenshot)? If so, have you allowed it access to Privacy Browser (if the OS service is enabled, Privacy Browser's WebView will prompt you if you want to enable it for the app the first time there is a form that can be saved in Autofill)? If so, it wouldn't surprise me that the Autofill service is making network requests to places like content-autofill.googleapis.com, although I would expect that your firewall would indicate that the request is coming from the OS autofill service and not from Privacy Browser. However, perhaps Autofill somehow indicates to the firewall that the request is being made on behalf of Privacy Browser.
For a little more background on Autofill, see the following two URLs.
https://www.androidcentral.com/how-use-autofill-android-oreo
Updated by Zounp . over 3 years ago
Thanks for the autofill information.
OS level autofill: No
Settings > Language & input > Autofill service > Autofill service : None
Updated by Soren Stoutner over 3 years ago
OK. So, that's definitely not what's going on.
Updated by Soren Stoutner over 3 years ago
If you can give me an example URL I would be interested in seeing if I can replicate the behavior. Or, is it happening randomly irrespective of the URLs that are loaded?
Updated by Zounp . over 3 years ago
Yes, I can. Giving an URL at this point would be a privacy issue.
I will try if I can reproduce it with an other domain and let you know.
Updated by No Name over 3 years ago
I analyzed the data traffic: https://www.kuketz-blog.de/privacy-browser-datensendeverhalten-android-app-browser-check-teil11/
Every time the browser finds an input field on a web page, it apparently opens a connection to the address content-autofill.googleapis.com. Why an autofill service for forms needs to initiate a connection to Google is beyond me. I almost suspect that the call comes about because the Privacy Browser uses the System WebView to display web pages and this causes the call.
HTTP-Request:
GET /v1/pages/ChNDaHJvbWUvOTAuMC40NDMwLjgyEhAJ07mi3Bp4sQoSBQ27V1Zq?alt=proto HTTP/1.1 Host: content-autofill.googleapis.com Connection: close X-Goog-Encode-Response-If-Executable: base64 X-Goog-Api-Key: dummytoken Sec-Fetch-Site: none Sec-Fetch-Mode: no-cors Sec-Fetch-Dest: empty User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; Android 10; Mi A1 Build/QQ3A.200805.001; wv) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Chrome/90.0.4430.82 Mobile Safari/537.36 Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate Accept-Language: de-DE,de;q=0.9,en-US;q=0.8,en;q=0.7
HTTP-Response :
HTTP/1.1 400 Bad Request Vary: Origin Vary: X-Origin Vary: Referer Content-Type: application/x-protobuf Date: Sun, 20 Jun 2021 18:02:13 GMT Server: ESF Cache-Control: private X-XSS-Protection: 0 X-Frame-Options: SAMEORIGIN X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff Alt-Svc: h3=":443"; ma=2592000,h3-29=":443"; ma=2592000,h3-T051=":443"; ma=2592000,h3-Q050=":443"; ma=2592000,h3-Q046=":443"; ma=2592000,h3-Q043=":443"; ma=2592000,quic=":443"; ma=2592000; v="46,43" Connection: close Content-Length: 166 /API key not valid. Please pass a valid API key.q (type.googleapis.com/google.rpc.ErrorInfoE API_KEY_INVALIDgoogleapis.com" serviceautofill.googleapis.com
You can reproduce the behaviour if you visit my blog: www.kuketz-blog.de
The search field triggers the connection to "autofill-content.googleapis.com".
Updated by Soren Stoutner over 3 years ago
- Subject changed from Connects to Google services to Connects to content-autofill.googleapis.com when tapping on an input field
Thanks for the additional information, which is very helpful. I am currently on vacation and won't be back to the equipment I need to try to replicate the issue until the end of the week. But I have a few questions that might provide useful information.
1. What program are you using to detect the information about the HTTP request and response information? Is it a firewall on your device or a network level proxy?
2. What settings do you have for the OS Autofill service (described above)?
3. Do you see the same behavior with another browser based on WebView like Lightning (https://f-droid.org/en/packages/acr.browser.lightning/)?
4. Do you see the same behavior with a browser based on Gecko like Fennec (https://f-droid.org/en/packages/org.mozilla.fennec_fdroid/)?
5. If you have root on your device, do you see this behavior if you replace the default WebView with Bromite's SystemWebView (https://www.bromite.org/system_web_view.html)?
6. Please post a copy of your About > Version. It is possible that this only affects certain ROMs, versions of Android, or versions of WebView.
Updated by No Name over 3 years ago
1. I use a network proxy - BurpSuite.
2. Under "System > Languages, inputs & gestures > Advanced -> Autofill services" I selected "No App".
3. Yes, I do.
4. No.
5. I won't change that right now. Sorry.
6. Here are the details:
Android-Version: 10
LineageOS-Version: 17.1-202106622-NIGHTLY-tissot
LineageOS API-Level: llama (9)
Security level: 5. June
Kernel-Version: 4.9.188-perf+
It's a Xiaomi Mi A1 test device.
Updated by No Name over 3 years ago
I want to add my WebView version: 91.0.4472.101
Updated by Zounp . over 3 years ago
Tested once more:
Autofill status: Settings > System > Languages & inputs > Advanced > Autofill service: None
Went to startpage.com.
- Nicely transforms it to https://startpage.com
- Search suggestions appeared. I did not allow content-autofill.googleapis.com in Netguard.
- When I look in Netguard I see connection attempts on TCP4 & -6 to content-autofill.googleapis.com
- Same behaviour: Wants to go to content-autofill.googleapis.com.
- Search suggestions appeared. I did not allow content-autofill.googleapis.com in Netguard.
- No extra connections appeard in Netguard. Only to startpage.com
- Search suggestions appeared. I did not allow content-autofill.googleapis.com in Netguard.
Updated by Soren Stoutner over 3 years ago
I am not able to replicate the issue on the following device:
Privacy Browser
Version 3.8 (version code 55)
Hardware
Brand: google
Manufacturer: Google
Model: Pixel 5
Device: redfin
Bootloader: r3-0.3-7241848
Radio: g7250-00132-210419-B-7294132,g7250-00132-210419-B-7294132
Software
Android: 11 (API 30)
Security Patch: 2021-06-05
Build: RQ3A.210605.005
WebView Provider: com.google.android.webview
WebView Version: 91.0.4472.120
Orbot: 16.4.1-RC-2-tor.0.4.4.6
I2P: 0.9.49
OpenKeychain: 5.7.5
Memory Usage
App Consumed Memory: 13.01 MiB
App Available Memory: 27.43 MiB
App Total Memory: 40.44 MiB
App Maximum Memory: 256.00 MiB
System Consumed Memory: 3,439.48 MiB
System Available Memory: 4,018.25 MiB
System Total Memory: 7,457.73 MiB
Blocklists
EasyList: 202105211708
EasyPrivacy: 202105211708
Fanboy's Annoyance List: 202105212100
Fanboy's Social Blocking List: 202105211708
UltraList: 1
UltraPrivacy: 2
Package Signature
Issuer DN: CN=Android Debug, O=Android, C=US
Subject DN: CN=Android Debug, O=Android, C=US
Start Date: Mar 11, 2015 12:39:21 PM MST
End Date: Mar 3, 2045 12:39:21 PM MST
Certificate Version: 3
Serial Number: 372300976
Signature Algorithm: SHA256withRSA
Specifically, no DNS lookups were ever made to content-autofill.googleapis.com while browsing startpage.com and www.kuketz-blog.de, tapping on a field, and doing a search using either Privacy Browser or Lightning.
As both of the people who are experiencing this problem are running LineageOS, I wonder if the issue is with some modification to that ROM. Do either of you have the ability to test a vanilla Android device?
Updated by No Name over 3 years ago
With the FOSS Browser (https://github.com/scoute-dich/browser) I won't see connections to content-autofill.googleapis.com.
The browser also uses Android System WebView.
Updated by Soren Stoutner over 3 years ago
Do you see connections to content-autofill.googleapis.com on any device not running LineageOS?
Updated by Soren Stoutner over 3 years ago
- Status changed from Feedback to Closed
Based on the information that has been provided so far, it appears that something like the following is happening:
1. A user taps on a field on a webpage in Privacy Browser.
2. WebView asks the Autofill service if it would like to provide autofill information.
3. Autofill sees that the None service is selected. On standard Android, Autofill does nothing. However, on LineageOS Autofill sends a request to content-autofill.googleapis.com with `X-Goog-Api-Key: dummytoken`.
It is unclear why LineageOS is doing this. It is likely due to some change they have made to the OS that has this unintended consequence.
Whatever the reason, based on the information above, it appears that this bug should actually be filed with LineageOS instead of with Privacy Browser. As such, I am closing the bug report. Feel free to add a comment if you have any indication that this behavior occurs on ROMs not based on LineageOS and I will reopen the bug.
Updated by Soren Stoutner about 3 years ago
This bug report is mentioned at https://gitlab.com/fdroid/fdroiddata/-/merge_requests/9655#note_687142404 because, of course, it affects any app using WebView on a LineageOS device.
Updated by Pelle Kirkeby about 1 year ago
Feel free to add a comment if you have any indication that this behavior occurs on ROMs not based on LineageOS and I will reopen the bug.
It happens on Nokia 2.2 running Android 11. Also, it doesn't seem to require tapping on any web page input fields.
Updated by Soren Stoutner about 1 year ago
Can you please post a copy of About > Version?
Updated by Soren Stoutner 10 months ago
Without a copy of your About > Version (and probably further followup information based on what I can glean from About > Version) it would be very difficult to troubleshoot what is going on in your case.