[tor-bugs] #32256 [Applications/Tor Browser]: TorBrowser should advertise Onion Networking capability in the User-Agent: string

Tor Bug Tracker & Wiki blackhole at torproject.org
Fri Nov 8 07:16:59 UTC 2019


#32256: TorBrowser should advertise Onion Networking capability in the User-Agent:
string
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 Reporter:  alecmuffett               |          Owner:  tbb-team
     Type:  enhancement               |         Status:  new
 Priority:  Medium                    |      Milestone:
Component:  Applications/Tor Browser  |        Version:
 Severity:  Normal                    |     Resolution:
 Keywords:                            |  Actual Points:
Parent ID:                            |         Points:
 Reviewer:                            |        Sponsor:
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Comment (by gk):

 Replying to [comment:13 alecmuffett]:
 > > It seems to me the user agent could sent this header with the first
 request and if the server does not want to react to that, that's cool, but
 then the header could get omitted as it seems the content provider does
 not want to act on that .onion offer.
 >
 > Thought experiment: Why do we not do that with the entire User-Agent?

 There are a number of reasons. Let me just name two (both of them do not
 apply to adding the onion capability bit):

 1) The user agent has been around for a long time on the web and services
 check that one for a variety of reasons. Dropping it suddenly after
 sending it in the first request would very likely break setups in the
 sense that the whole site gets non-functional.

 2) The user agent is sometimes used for deciding which *content* is shown
 to the user. If you sent a desktop string in the first request but then
 dropped it and the server decides to suddenly deliver you content designed
 for your mobile you would probably be quite unhappy about it.

--
Ticket URL: <https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/32256#comment:15>
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