bug#59546: qutebrowser and icecat stuck in infinite browser checks (cloudflare) on applicable sites

["bdju" via Bug reports for GNU Guix <bug-guix@gnu.org>]

On Wed Dec 14, 2022 at 10:32 PM CST, Maxim Cournoyer wrote:
> Hello,
>
> "bdju" <bdju@tilde.team> writes:
>
> > I have hit this issue before, but not in a while. I don't know for sure
> > when the issue came back as it only matters for the initial login or
> > visit of the offending sites, so if you manage to get past you'll be
> > good until your cookie expires or gets deleted somehow. I got logged out
> > of many sites in qutebrowser recently and was made aware of the issue
> > being back. I also tested in icecat where some sites I still had a
> > cookie, but I managed to find one with a browser check and it indeed
> > never completes (can leave it open hours or even more than a day).
>
> > Some sites to test with include:
> > https://www.livechart.me/ (must click login button, main page works)
> > https://www.gitlab.com/ (again must click log in to start the check)
> >
> > Since this is happening in both icecat and qutebrowser with different
> > user agents and everything, I suspect a guix-related issue. I found that
> > at least one other person on IRC was also experiencing the infinite
> > browser checks. I use a few sites daily that are now unusable on my Guix
> > System machine due to these browser checks, so a fix would be very much
> > appreciated if anyone could figure this out.
>
> I've had that too with Gitlab when using Icecat.  Sadly, it has nothing
> to do with Guix but with how Cloudfare and the website identifies
> browsers.
>
> For example, I had found out that by using a Windows Firefox 83 user
> agent, I was able to login into Gitlab (using this plugin:
> https://gitlab.com/ntninja/user-agent-switcher).  I reported the issue
> to Gitlab, and they could apparently fixed it on their side (not yet
> deployed) [0]
>
> [0]  https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/345328
>
> I think other sites or CloudFare must be similarly faulty, or require
> fingerprinting which is guarded against out-of-the-box in IceCat.
>
> Closing, as I doubt Guix has something to do with it.  If you find
> something to the contrary, let us know!
>
> -- 
> Thanks,
> Maxim

I too have fixed it in the past by switching my user agent. I opened and
closed a similar bug some months or years back. That solution stopped
working. I have consulted with folks in the qutebrowser IRC about this
issue several times and it is not affecting everyone there, so it
definitely seems guix-related to me. Something about our packages must
make the browser(s) look odd to these infernal browser checks. I know
that the issue is cloudflare essentially bullying those of us with more
niche setups, but cloudflare has sadly infected most of the Web, so we
have to play their game. I fear the number of qutebrowser users on guix
is in the single digits and so often I'm running into odd problems with
no solution, that again rarely seems to affect people on the other
distros when I go to ask for help. I think our Qt version is almost
always old which probably doesn't help.
I doubt I have the proper evidence to convince you this is guix's fault,
but just know that if you close this issue my problem may never be
solved (although it may never get solved either way honestly).