Safari "page's address isn't valid" error when using the content blocking API

[scheer]

Environment

iPhone 6s Plus
iOS 9.3.1
ABP iOS 1.1.0

OR

Safari 9.1 for Mac OS X
​An otherwise empty extension that uses this Content Blocker File:

[
	{
		"trigger": {
			"url-filter": "^https?://.*&advid=",
			"resource-type": [
				"document"
			]
		},
		"action": {
			"type": "block"
		}
	}
]

How to reproduce

1. Visit ​https://www.google.co.uk/aclk?sa=L&ai=DChcSEwjC6rqt5p_OAhVGuBsKHUoeAG8YABAA&sig=AOD64_2kAoVInCmwfi5kot9P5h-jb1GQ7Q&q=&ved=0ahUKEwjA-bet5p_OAhVlBcAKHVU4CDMQ0QwIIQ&adurl=

OR

1. Visit ​https://www.google.de and search 'Samsung Galaxy S7'
2. Select the Ad with the URL 'www.base.de/galaxy-s7'

OR

1. Visit ​https://au.search.yahoo.com and search 'buy car'
2. Select the ad 'www.AMSVans.com'

Observed behaviour

On iOS this error message is displayed: Safari cannot open the page 'The Error was. 'The URL can't be shown'.

For Safari 9.1 on Mac OS X this message is displayed: "Safari can't open the page "​https://www.google.co.uk/aclick?..." because the page's address isn't valid".

Expected behaviour

No error message displayed, browser is redirected to the advertisement.

Notes

• The URL redirects to http://bs.serving-sys.com/BurstingPipe/AdServer.bs?cn=ccs&ebcmp=10430353&ebkw=249705620&advid=11899&ebag=9642384&sead=105349998804&ccsdev=c&ccsurl=$$https://www.nissan.co.uk/?&cid=psmh565SKgG_dc|U&cid=psmh565SKgG_dc|U$$ which is then blocked by the content blocking rule. Safari unhelpfully displays the wrong error message, stating that the URL can't be parsed!
• A possible longer-term work around for this issue is #4327.

[scheer]

Whilst testing, I also used the same search criteria on www.yahoo.co.uk for 'buy car'. When selecting the ad link for www.nissan.co.uk/car, the advertised URL loads correctly.

[scheer]

bing.com also works correctly with the above mentioned URL's.

[kzar]

This looks like it could be a Safari bug, but before we continue I want to try to figure out which rules trigger the problem.

[kzar]

I have filed a bug with Apple about this, bug number is 27656882.

[kzar]

I haven't managed to find a quick work around for this problem, I'm not sure what we can do at this point. I've tried removing all rules with filters containing .*&ad but that didn't help. To work around this our end we would likely have to remove huge portions of the rule list, and good luck finding the exact combination of the ~50,000 rules that works!

Apple are hardly responsive to bug reports. Perhaps we could instead work with Google to help them avoid using URLs that trigger the bug?

[sebastian]

I filtered the list for any blocking rule whose regular expression matches this URL, and I found this one, which would essentially block that page. So it's probably not a Safari bug, though the error message is quite misleading.

{
    "trigger": {
        "url-filter": "^https?://.*&adurl=",
        "resource-type": [
            "image",
            "style-sheet",
            "script",
            "font",
            "media",
            "raw",
            "document"
        ]
    },
    "action": {
        "type": "block"
    }
}

Note that there is no distinction between frames and top-level documents with Content Blockers. Both are blocked by the "request-type": ["document"].

[kzar]

I don't think that's the case, I can reproduce the problem without that rule. (See my notes in the Environment section about how I could reproduce this problem with only the ^https?://.*&advid= blocking rule.)

[sebastian]

The server returns a redirect to a URL like this, which is blocked by that rule:

http://bs.serving-sys.com/BurstingPipe/AdServer.bs?cn=ccs&ebcmp=10430353&ebkw=249705620&advid=11899&ebag=9642384&sead=105349998804&ccsdev=c&ccsurl=$$https://www.nissan.co.uk/?&cid=psmh565SKgG_dc|U&cid=psmh565SKgG_dc|U$$

[kzar]

Yes, looks like you're right, remind me to completely ignore Safari's error messages in the future...

I've put a change under review to whitelist the domain for that example, but the same problem could still be present for other adverts.
Mario / Ross / Scott - could you guys do some further testing for me and see if you can find any other similarly broken ads? (Please paste the link's address for any that you find, rather than explaining how you performed the search.)

[abpbot]

A commit referencing this issue has landed:
​Issue 4280 - Begin whitelisting domains used by Google redirects

[abpbot]

A commit referencing this issue has landed:
​Issue 4280 - Whitelist further domains used by Google redirections

[rraceanu]

The issue also occurs on about.com when searching for Iphone 6s

Environment:
Iphone 6
iOS 9.1
ABP 1.1.0 (last update Thursday 15 September)

1. Open about.com with Safari and ABP enabled
2. Search for Iphoen 6 and open the link from m.base.de/iphone-6s

The link will open a new tab trying to redirect the user, but the page cannot be opened with the Error "The URL can't be shown". The link for that page is "googleadservices.com"

[kzar]

Please right click on the troublesome link, select "Copy Link" and paste that.

Unfortunately we're playing whack-a-mole with this issue for now. When one of these links are clicked the browser is redirected multiple times and if any of the redirected URLs are blocked this error shows. Worse still Safari displays the wrong URL when the error is shown, so without the original link we can't do anything!

Thanks for your help testing this.

(For reference #4327 is a possible longer-term solution to this problem.)

[rraceanu]

The issue is also occuring on Google.com under the same circumstances

the troublesome link is: ​http://www.googleadservices.com/pagead/aclk?sa=L&ai=DChcSEwim68rC_JDPAhUF4RsKHTTeDvsYABAA&ohost=www.google.de&cid=CAASJORoL4PczrCtQdIJnM1eV1Z2rUqefdENSpkmWq9iO2KIk6Jt4Q&sig=AOD64_1x_LCEXm2NDq4eZDZze1XwMIbfzQ&q=&ved=0ahUKEwi4pMbC_JDPAhVIsBQKHYGMDDMQ0QwIHQ&adurl=

[abpbot]

A commit referencing this issue has landed:
​Issue 4280 - Whitelist further domains used by Google redirections

[Bravy02]

I still run into the same issue.
iOS 10.2 (iPad Air 2)
Adblock Plus 1.1.0

If I go to www.google.com in Safari and search for "Flatware" and then try to click one of the links near the top under "Shop For Flatware", I'm taken to the error "Safari cannot open the page. The error was: The URL was blocked by a content blocker".

The URL when the error is displayed is "​https://www.google.com/aclk?sa=l&ai=DChcSEwiju-jM1_PQAhUDuMAKHUTYB9EYABAZ&sig=AOD64_1THDIeesXV1s1p1w6-6P0h1tICrQ&ctype=5&q=&ved=0ahUKEwjX0eHM1_PQAhWB54MKHS49DQkQwg8IHA&adurl="

I have tried whitelisting google.com and googleadservices.com in my Adblock Plus config but it did not help. Thank you.

[abpbot]

A commit referencing this issue has landed:
​Issue 4280 - Include sub-domains for xg4ken.com click redirects

[arthur]

@Bravy02
Please try it with a manual filter update in ~20 minutes.

[Bravy02]

@arthur
I ran a manual filter update and still run into the same issue on my iPad Air 2 running iOS 10.2. I even removed "google.com" and "googleadservices.com" from the whitelist.

[arthur]

Strange. Could you add the URL of the ad as you did last time?

[Bravy02]

Replying to arthur:

Strange. Could you add the URL of the ad as you did last time?

Sure thing. If you search www.google.com for "Flatware" and click on the first shopping picture for Walmart it's this URL which is still blocked by a content blocker.

​https://www.googleadservices.com/pagead/aclk?sa=L&ai=DChcSEwjHtufOsuLRAhUbVg0KHZBDAVwYABAY&ohost=www.google.com&cid=CAESIuD2pjpXqclT2dlEoCZ5T84d_zE2rYGvRimS6IjhMwI9f6w&sig=AOD64_2l17LGUea1F_qG9IrjmN1jAdxdMw&ctype=5&q=&ved=0ahUKEwjWvOPOsuLRAhVIzIMKHZfFCc0Qwg8IHA&adurl=

Note that if I manually remove "&adurl=" from the end of that URL, this URL works in Safari on my iPad (iOS 10.2.1) with the latest filter list:

​https://www.googleadservices.com/pagead/aclk?sa=L&ai=DChcSEwjHtufOsuLRAhUbVg0KHZBDAVwYABAY&ohost=www.google.com&cid=CAESIuD2pjpXqclT2dlEoCZ5T84d_zE2rYGvRimS6IjhMwI9f6w&sig=AOD64_2l17LGUea1F_qG9IrjmN1jAdxdMw&ctype=5&q=&ved=0ahUKEwjWvOPOsuLRAhVIzIMKHZfFCc0Qwg8IHA

[arthur]

Sorry for my late reply!

Thanks! I tried to reproduce this on a Mac Mini and iPad Air 2 but couldn't. The links from you work fine and I also tried it with some Walmart ads when searching for "flatware".

Maybe you could try it again after clearing cache and cookies in Safari and re-installing Adblock Plus?

[Bravy02]

Replying to arthur:

Sorry for my late reply!

Thanks! I tried to reproduce this on a Mac Mini and iPad Air 2 but couldn't. The links from you work fine and I also tried it with some Walmart ads when searching for "flatware".

Maybe you could try it again after clearing cache and cookies in Safari and re-installing Adblock Plus?

No worries, thank you for your help!

Actually I just updated the filter list again (it was last updated 1/27/17) and then disabled/re-enabled AdBlock Plus in the iOS Safari Content Blocker settings and now the Google Shopping Ad URLs are no longer blocked. I also tried the Google Ad URL for Walmart flatware that I previously posted and it works now too!

Let's close this out, thank you again.

[arthur]

Thanks for confirming!

[abpbot]

A commit referencing this issue has landed:
​Issue 4280 - Whitelist further domains used by Google redirections

[Bravy02]

Hi Arthur,

This issue is back on iOS. On my iPad in Safari I went to google.com and searched for silverware. When I tried to click on one of the sponsored pictures at the top, I receive the same iOS error that the URL was blocked by a content blocker. The same issue happens for everything in Google Shopping as well.

Search URL:
​https://www.google.com/search?site=&source=hp&ei=nz9aWcq7NIyijwSkm6W4Bw&q=silverware&oq=silverware&gs_l=mobile-gws-hp.3..0l5.1686.3211.0.3590.11.11.0.3.3.0.310.1671.2j8j0j1.11.0.foo%2Cewh%3D0%2Cnso-enksa%3D0%2Cnso-mplt%3D2%2Cnso-enfk%3D1%2Cnso-usnt%3D1%2Cnso-qnt-npqp%3D0-1633%2Cnso-qnt-npdq%3D0-5608%2Cnso-qnt-npt%3D0-1229%2Cnso-qnt-ndc%3D2051%2Ccspa-dspm-nm-mnp%3D0-06145%2Ccspa-dspm-nm-mxp%3D0-153625%2Cnso-unt-npqp%3D0-1506%2Cnso-unt-npdq%3D0-4694%2Cnso-unt-npt%3D0-061%2Cnso-unt-ndc%3D300%2Ccspa-uipm-nm-mnp%3D0-007625%2Ccspa-uipm-nm-mxp%3D0-053375...0...1..64.mobile-gws-hp..2.9.980.3..41j0i131k1.xTLcd2YqyRA

Destination URL that is blocked:
​https://www.googleadservices.com/pagead/aclk?sa=L&ai=DChcSEwjM3tSsle3UAhUQcX4KHTIrCRMYABABGgJwYw&ohost=www.google.com&cid=CAASE-RoUd987mKS46fVFQckQQGHBn0&sig=AOD64_2E2fy-EEh5qNPdGRchbNjuEQNJJA&ctype=5&q=&ved=0ahUKEwjM0c-sle3UAhUj24MKHaYWCNAQwg8IHQ&adurl=

[arthur]

I wasn't able to reproduce this (iPhone 6S, iOS 9.2.1, ABP 1.1.0). I updated the filters and cleared the browsing history in Safari before testing. Could you do the same and tell me if it's still happening then?

Does it happen as well if you open https://issues.adblockplus.org/ticket/4280 in Safari and go to the last link you posted?

[Bravy02]

I am using iOS 10.3.2 on my iPhone 6 and iPad Air 2 with ABP 1.1.0. I went into the Safari Content Blocker settings and disabled Adblock Plus and then re-enabled it. Then I tried the links in my previous post and they are working now. I'm not sure when the issue started, perhaps it was either the update from iOS 10.2.x to 10.3 or one of the 10.3 updates.

[Bravy02]

This is still an issue on my iPad Air 2 and iPhone 6 running iOS 10.3.2. I have cleared all cookies and browsing history and the links in the Google Search results for shopping are being blocked if you try to click on them. If you tap and hold to open the link in a new tab, it is not blocked.

[arthur]

Please always include the blocked destination URL when this issue occurs.

[Bravy02]

Sorry about that.

Google Search for "silverware":
​https://www.google.com/search?q=silverware&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-us&client=safari

Google Shopping Destination URLs that are blocked:
​https://www.googleadservices.com/pagead/aclk?sa=L&ai=DChcSEwiDwNqtpbPVAhUDHWkKHUm2CYcYABALGgJpcQ&ohost=www.google.com&cid=CAASEuRod0EJzcy217fZ8XhutW56sg&sig=AOD64_3x8CI0dKuwRYKazo86h-ftidaqLw&ctype=5&q=&ved=0ahUKEwjkj9atpbPVAhVs1oMKHa5DCC8Qwg8IIw&adurl=

​https://www.googleadservices.com/pagead/aclk?sa=L&ai=DChcSEwiDwNqtpbPVAhUDHWkKHUm2CYcYABANGgJpcQ&ohost=www.google.com&cid=CAASEuRod0EJzcy217fZ8XhutW56sg&sig=AOD64_1sptbTMGZEkeRkvNxWhMvcD-F4Kw&ctype=5&q=&ved=0ahUKEwjkj9atpbPVAhVs1oMKHa5DCC8Qwg8IJg&adurl=

​https://www.googleadservices.com/pagead/aclk?sa=L&ai=DChcSEwiDwNqtpbPVAhUDHWkKHUm2CYcYABATGgJpcQ&ohost=www.google.com&cid=CAASEuRod0EJzcy217fZ8XhutW56sg&sig=AOD64_0YdUoZOTauXzGo3op2484s9LK2gg&ctype=5&q=&ved=0ahUKEwjkj9atpbPVAhVs1oMKHa5DCC8Qwg8ILw&adurl=

[arthur]

I tried it and it's working fine for me. I was only able to reproduce it when disabling Acceptable Ads. Could you check if whether it's enabled for you?

[Bravy02]

I thought I replied to this a month or so ago, my apologies. I had Acceptable Ads disabled on both devices. I enabled Acceptable Ads and then the Google Shopping links started working. I left Acceptable Ads enabled which solves my concern.

[PlasticSurgeonInLahore]

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[slotslotonline]

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[nps1337]

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