Bug 16993 – REGRESSION: Loading page leads to many unexpected redirections

• Status: RESOLVED
• Resolution: FIXED
• Component: Page Loading

[Robert Royar]

My university uses Datatel's Webadvisor for all student, staff, and faculty secure interactions.

With the original 523.x WebKit as shipped by Apple, the url https://webadvisor.moreheadstate.edu:443 loads normally.

With recent nightly builds (at least since January 21, 2008), navigating to the page begins a page load and then goes into a loop--looks as though there are redirections.  The server eventually causes Safari to show an error dialog box which states that the cookies have been exhausted for the session and that the browser must be closed and a new login attempted.  Note, it looks as though the server believes cookies have already been set.  But clearing all cookies for the site does not fix the error.  Neither does exiting the nightly build enabled Safari and restarting it.  Starting a new Safari with the Apple-shipped webkit does fix the problem.  The problem does not occur in Gecko-based browsers.

Note that the site access is restricted without a password and account; however, the problem shows up on the initial guest screen.  So anyone should be able to verify this.

[Mark Rowe (bdash)]

Confirmed with TOT.  In Safari 3 I am redirected to a URL of <https://webadvisor.moreheadstate.edu:443/webadvisor/webadvisor?&TYPE=M&PID=CORE-WBMAIN&TOKENIDX=4509844897> which then loads correctly.  In TOT I am redirected to a similar URL (different TOKENIDX number), which then redirects to a similar URL with TOKENIDX of NULL, which redirects back to a TOKENIDX with a number.  It ping-pongs between NULL and a number repeatedly.

[Mark Rowe (bdash)]

<rdar://problem/5704331>

[Alexey Proskuryakov]

Fixed in r29774.

Rolled out r29590, which was not a correct fix for <rdar://problem/5692566>.