[tbb-bugs] #17670 [Tor Browser]: Mac OSX mistakes Tor as Firefox default browser

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#17670: Mac OSX mistakes Tor as Firefox default browser
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 Reporter:  patrickbateman  |          Owner:  tbb-team
     Type:  defect          |         Status:  new
 Priority:  Immediate       |      Milestone:
Component:  Tor Browser     |        Version:
 Severity:  Critical        |     Resolution:
 Keywords:                  |  Actual Points:
Parent ID:                  |         Points:
  Sponsor:                  |
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Changes (by teor):

 * owner:   => tbb-team
 * component:  - Select a component => Tor Browser


Comment:

 This issue also occurs on OS X where:
 * multiple Tor Browser versions are installed, and the default launches
 either (setting Tor Browser 5.0 as the default browser will lead to 5.5
 being opened if it was the last one installed), and
 * some crippled version of Tor Browser, perhaps the meek-proxy one is
 opened (I have observed links from Adium opening in an atypical Tor
 Browser environment that has none of the usual menus. I think this is the
 meek-proxy version, but I'm not sure.)

 I think we want to keep the first behaviour (it helps on upgrade, and
 users with multiple versions can manage the issue themselves); but avoid
 firefox and meek-proxy getting confused with Tor Browser.

 I think the firefox substitution issue can be fixed by:
 * Changing the "Bundle creator OS Type code" in the Tor Browser Info.plist
 to something other than "MOZB", I suggest "MOZT"

 I think the meek-proxy substitution issue can be fixed by:
 * Changing the "Bundle creator OS Type code" in the meek-proxy Info.plist
 to something other than "MOZB" and the value assigned to Tor Browser, I
 suggest "MOZM"
 * Changing the "Bundle identifier" in the meek-proxy Info.plist to
 something other than "org.mozilla.tor browser". I suggest "org.mozilla
 .tor-browser.meek-proxy" (which is a legal bundle identifier, unlike Tor
 Browser's - see below).

 We might want to check with Mozilla about this. It would be nice to check
 Apple's database of registered Bundle creator OS Type codes, but it isn't
 maintained any more:
 https://lists.apple.com/archives/cocoa-dev/2014/Sep/msg00255.html

 The issue might not be the creator code, it could occur because Tor
 Browser uses an invalid bundle identifier:

 The "Bundle identifier" for Tor Browser contains spaces, but it shouldn't.
 We should change it to a legal identifier like "org.mozilla.tor-browser",
 or, if we want to base it on our reversed DNS name, "org.torproject.tor-
 browser". Similarly, we should change meek-proxy's bundle identifier to a
 legal one (see above).

   "The bundle identifier string identifies your application to the system.
 This string must be a uniform type identifier (UTI) that contains only
 alphanumeric (A-Z,a-z,0-9), hyphen (-), and period (.) characters. The
 string should also be in reverse-DNS format. For example, if your
 company’s domain is Ajax.com and you create an application named Hello,
 you could assign the string com.Ajax.Hello as your application’s bundle
 identifier.

   The bundle identifier is used in validating the application signature."
 https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/CoreFoundation/Conceptual/CFBundles/BundleTypes/BundleTypes.html

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Ticket URL: <https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/17670#comment:1>
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