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Disable redirect on X-Ipfs-Path without DNSLink on the root document #1052

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@lidel

Description

@lidel

https://fleek.co is an example of interesting misconfiguration (at least today 2022-02-17):

  • fleek.co has no DNSLink
  • HTTP response includes x-ipfs-path to immutable snapshot
$ ipfs resolve -r /ipns/fleek.co
Error: could not resolve name: "fleek.co" is missing a DNSLink record (https://docs.ipfs.io/concepts/dnslink/)

$ curl -Is https://fleek.co/ | grep x-ipfs-path 
x-ipfs-path: /ipfs/bafybeidwgtlx54aifd5ynwwvlozr2fuw5xrmbu3ivnwmnoxi4ewdnxty5y/

Problem

Companion will use x-ipfs-path as fallback:

// Detect X-Ipfs-Path Header and upgrade transport to IPFS:
// 1. Check if DNSLink exists and redirect to it.
// 2. If there is no DNSLink, validate path from the header and redirect

This means opening https://fleek.co with ipfs-companion will redirect user to http://bafybeidwgtlx54aifd5ynwwvlozr2fuw5xrmbu3ivnwmnoxi4ewdnxty5y.ipfs.localhost:8080

Solution

  • We should modify the redirect logic, so it does not redirect the root document in presence of immutable x-ipfs-path, as that makes it hard for user to bookmark, access the latest version in the future, and could introduce regressions (only websites with valid DNSLink should be redirected).
  • My suggestion is to consider redirecting the root document (one from address bar) if resource URL is following Gateway conventions described in https://docs.ipfs.tech/how-to/address-ipfs-on-web/ – this way misconfigured websites won't get mangled.
  • Update: for proper detection heuristics see diagram introduced in feat: add /how-to/detect-ipfs-on-web ipfs-docs#1295. The caveat here is to disable automatic redirect of top-level document if the URL is not a public gateway URL, the response has x-ipfs-path, but the domain has no DNSLink set up.

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    P1High: Likely tackled by core team if no one steps uparea/MV2Issues related to Manifest V2 versionarea/MV3Issues related to Manifest V3 versioneffort/hoursEstimated to take one or several hoursexp/intermediatePrior experience is likely helpfulkind/bugA bug in existing code (including security flaws)

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