Bug 234511 – Open Link in New Tab does not send referer header

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

[[e-mail]]

Created attachment 447600 [details]
Screencast showing requests and missing referer header

When opening links in a new tab, the Referer header is not sent.

Steps to reproduce the problem:

1. Go to https://mskelton.github.io/chromium-bug
2. Right click on GitHub link
3. Click Open Link in New Tab
4. Notice that the Referer header is missing in the request

This occurs both for cmd+click and right click -> Open in New Tab and is the case for both same origin and cross origin links.

[Radar WebKit Bug Importer]

<rdar://problem/86937817>

[Chris Dumez]

It is not clear to me here that this is a bug and that we are expected to send a referrer header here.

How is that different from copying the link URL, opening a new tab and pasting the URL in the URL bar (which is basically what this menu action does)?

[[e-mail]]

(In reply to Chris Dumez from comment #2)
> It is not clear to me here that this is a bug and that we are expected to
> send a referrer header here.
> 
> How is that different from copying the link URL, opening a new tab and
> pasting the URL in the URL bar (which is basically what this menu action
> does)?

Other browsers correctly attach the Referer header when opening links in a new tab (save for a minor bug in Chrome) so I would hope Webkit would follow suit to be consistent.

[Chris Dumez]

(In reply to Mark Skelton from comment #3)
> (In reply to Chris Dumez from comment #2)
> > It is not clear to me here that this is a bug and that we are expected to
> > send a referrer header here.
> > 
> > How is that different from copying the link URL, opening a new tab and
> > pasting the URL in the URL bar (which is basically what this menu action
> > does)?
> 
> Other browsers correctly attach the Referer header when opening links in a
> new tab (save for a minor bug in Chrome) so I would hope Webkit would follow
> suit to be consistent.

Yes, if other browsers do so, it is pretty good justification for us to do the same indeed.

[Chris Dumez]

Ok, here is a better test repro:
- https://codepen.io/cdumez/pen/poWKzxV

1. Right-click link > open in new tab
2. Notice that there is no referrer printed out in Safari but there is one in both Chrome and Firefox.

[Chris Dumez]

(In reply to Chris Dumez from comment #5)
> Ok, here is a better test repro:
> - https://codepen.io/cdumez/pen/poWKzxV
> 
> 1. Right-click link > open in new tab
> 2. Notice that there is no referrer printed out in Safari but there is one
> in both Chrome and Firefox.

This appears to be a Safari issue though, not a WebKit one. If I use WebKit's mini browser and click "open in new window", then I see a referrer.

The problem is that Safari hijacks the context menu and has its own actions in there. Those "Open Link in..." actions do not send a referrer header.

[Brent Fulgham]

This is actually:
<rdar://3413260>

It is apparently standard Safari behavior since 2003.

[Brent Fulgham]

Mark: Just to be clear, you are reporting a problem in the Safari client of WebKit, which chooses to implement its own 'Open Link In' behavior that does not include the header.

I am resolving this as 'Moved', since it needs to be fixed in the Safari client. That problem is tracked in Safari under rdar://3413260.

[Alexey Proskuryakov]

*** Bug 277044 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***