[SOLVED] Kubuntu Forums not Accessible from Falkon or Waterfox

[oldgeek]

As of a few days ago, I can no longer access Kubuntu Forums from either Falkon 3.1 or Waterfox 56.2.13. I get an error message saying that both browsers are way out of date and I should upgrade them. As far as I know, I have the latest versions of both browsers. I can access the Forums with the latest Firefox and Pale Moon, however. What has changed? I am using Kubuntu 19.10.

[Snowhog]

Our php protection script -- ZB-Block -- is preventing connection to us from those two browsers. I've asked a question about these browsers and ZB-Block on their (ZB-Block) site. I'll follow-up when I get the qualified answer.
You should be seeing a 403 access denied screen with information as to submitting a trouble ticket. Please follow through with that.

[claydoh]

it is working fine for me on KDE Neon, with the same version as you have, but is Neon's own packaging
Checking 19.10

It looks to be the sites anti spam software, and these browsers with tiny, minuscule userbases are probably confusing it, or the user-agent strings they use are old.

If you have the 403 forbidden screen, this is from that software. You can submit a trouble ticket, but you will have to right click and copy the link, and paste it in Firefox , if you use a web based email client. Falkon may not yet support mailto links, or I can't get it to work lol

[Snowhog]

From the maintainer of ZB-Block:

The official explanation: while their browsers may be current releases, they are based on older Chrome (for Falkon) and Firefox (for Waterfox) releases ... and the underlying obsolete Chrome/Firefox code is what triggers the block they see. It's just like building a replica Ford Model T, in that even when you use all new parts, it's still a Model T that lacks the safety features of a brand-new Ford.

[claydoh]

So why no error on my Neon system, same network and external IP? Odd. But I don't use it, anyway.

[Snowhog]

Likely because the packagers for it on neon are using newer releases of Chrome and Firefox? If you open Falkon (in neon) and go to: https://www.whatsmyua.info what is the User Agent string reported?

[claydoh]

A fix

In 19.10,:
User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Falkon/3.1.0 Chrome/69.0.3497.128 Safari/537.36

On Neon,
user agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Falkon/3.1.0 Chrome/73.0.3683.105 Safari/537.36

So the difference is obvious, though still odd as they both seemingly use the same source, and I can't see any differences (with my mostly untrained, astigmatic eyes) in the packaging or building that would account for it.
It is probably that Kubuntu is using a slightly older version of QtWebEngine than Neon is.


BUT one can edit the user agent, via the settings file ~/.config/falkon/profiles/default/settings.ini
Close Falkon
Open the settings.ini file
Look for the section [Web-Browser-Settings]
Add this line (or modify it, if you have it already)
UserAgent="Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/73.0.3683.105 Safari/537.36"

Save the file, and run the browser to see if it works, it does for me now.

There is a user agent config section in Falcon, but it does not seem to work, other than to choose from 4 choices, all of which trigger the 'old browser version' warning from the zbblock.

[ZB-Block-JamesC]

Look for the section [Web-Browser-Settings]
Add this line (or modify it, if you have it already)
UserAgent="Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/73.0.3683.105 Safari/537.36"

Your suggestion removes Falkon from the useragent completely. Is this intentional?

If you're willing to fake the useragent, might I suggest a current Chrome version number? This will give you a few more months before your useragent becomes outdated again.

Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/78.0.3904.108 Safari/537.36

Verify the updated useragent on the useragent-display site of your choice, to be sure no quotation marks sneak in.

[Snowhog]

Having Falkon/3.1.0 in the User Agent isn't triggering ZB-Block; it's the version number of Chrome.

[claydoh]

Your suggestion removes Falkon from the useragent completely. Is this intentional?

If you're willing to fake the useragent, might I suggest a current Chrome version number? This will give you a few more months before your useragent becomes outdated again.

Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/78.0.3904.108 Safari/537.36

Verify the updated useragent on the useragent-display site of your choice, to be sure no quotation marks sneak in.

This was just the user agent that Falkon is using in a stock KDE Neon, using the more up to date QtWebEngine , which I am guessing is using Chromium 73 as its core, so I don't think it is actually spoofing, but I am sure others who actually use this browser might be better served using a newer version

[oldgeek]

I tried Claydoh's fix with Falkon and it works fine. That's good enough for me, thanks!