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Old 16 Mar 2022, 08:46 AM   #1
gardenweed
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Clicking email in list opens advert in new browser tab

Something that has started recently is that sometimes adverts will open up a new browser tab when I click a new email to read.

Details
  • I am using FM in the browser.
  • MS Edge
  • Windows 10
  • MS Surface Pro
  • FM web UI set to "hide reading pane"
  • The new web tab with ad only appears when I use my finger on the touch screen to open the email.

Typically happens when opening an email from Aliexpress, and maybe some others, I forget.

I've mouse hovered in the area of the email preview shown in the email list, but I cannot see another link appear that might be causing the new instance of the ad in a new browser tab.
It only seems to happen when I use my finger on the touch screen of the Surface Pro.
This suggests that there might be another link somewhere in the email preview which my finger hits but a mouse pointer does not hit - obviously my finger covering a bigger area than the mouse pointer selected.

I've used the mouse to try to locate a second link by hover-searching over the email preview area, but I cannot locate the nefarious link in the email preview area with my mouse pointer.

Has anyone else noticed this behaviour when opening emails from the email list pane?
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Old 16 Mar 2022, 11:19 AM   #2
BritTim
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I have not seen this, but I rarely use Edge. What it feels like is a bug in the Edge browser that allows (perhaps via JavaScript) emails to be crafted to launch the ads in a new tab. It would be interesting to carefully examine the raw message for clues as to how this might work. There are probably various ways of dealing with this if I am correct that a bug in Edge is allowing it to occur.
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Old 16 Mar 2022, 11:25 AM   #3
xyzzy
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But FM has no ads!

My initial reaction (not saying this is the actual cause) is if this happens in one browser that browser is some how corrupted (possibly some extension/addon got installed that intercepts links - check your extension list). If it happens in multiple browser then your system is corrupted or a smart installer for one browser that can hunt down all your other installed browsers to propagate itself into those).

Also not sure why a touch would have different results than a pointer since there is only a small point of contact on touch devices (at least based on my experience with an iPhone).

Last edited by xyzzy : 16 Mar 2022 at 11:35 AM.
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Old 16 Mar 2022, 11:46 AM   #4
gardenweed
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Quote:
Originally Posted by xyzzy View Post
But FM has no ads!

.....
I don't think this has anything to do with FM specifically - it's just that I experience it in their web UI.
I suspect it is some sort of browser bug or such that is being exploited - as per BritTim's suggestion.

To further clarify, the new browser tab will contain promo stuff that is associated with the sender of the email.
So it's not generic ad stuff.
It's as if I have pressed a link inside that unopened email and been sent to the senders promo site in a new browser tab.

I will install and use another browser for a while (pish! ) - maybe Firefox - and see if the behaviour is repeated there.
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Old 16 Mar 2022, 02:58 PM   #5
BritTim
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Quote:
Originally Posted by gardenweed View Post
I will install and use another browser for a while (pish! ) - maybe Firefox - and see if the behaviour is repeated there.
Consider the Brave browser.
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Old 16 Mar 2022, 03:44 PM   #6
gardenweed
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BritTim View Post
Consider the Brave browser.
Same behaviour using Brave. A new browser tab opens with promo stuff.
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Old 16 Mar 2022, 05:00 PM   #7
xyzzy
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It it always a specific promo for the same stuff?

Have you tried rebooting the device?
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Old 16 Mar 2022, 06:34 PM   #8
JeremyNicoll
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A quick google shows me that there's an "ontouch" event available in javascript so - if you're reading an html mail - and you touch the screen, whatever JS logic is setup to process a touch will run.

What's bad about this (to my mind, but I loathe and avoid html mails) is that I would have hoped that JS was not active when reading a mail, since that vastly increases the chance of malware/phishing occurring.

See eg: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/...I/Touch_events
and: https://www.w3schools.com/jsref/obj_touchevent.asp
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Old 16 Mar 2022, 06:47 PM   #9
BritTim
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JeremyNicoll View Post
A quick google shows me that there's an "ontouch" event available in javascript so - if you're reading an html mail - and you touch the screen, whatever JS logic is setup to process a touch will run.

What's bad about this (to my mind, but I loathe and avoid html mails) is that I would have hoped that JS was not active when reading a mail, since that vastly increases the chance of malware/phishing occurring.

See eg: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/...I/Touch_events
and: https://www.w3schools.com/jsref/obj_touchevent.asp
I remember some vigorous discussion from years ago on whether JavaScript should be totally disabled in email clients. As I recall, the general consensus was that there are valid uses. For example, survey forms are often handled via email, and input validation is hard to achieve in many cases without the use of JavaScript. However, I also seem to recall that people strongly believed that email clients had a responsibility for filtering email messages to remove inappropriate JavaScript functionality. If you are correct in your theory that the ontouch event is the culprit, I think Fastmail should be at least made aware of this and asked to comment.
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Old 16 Mar 2022, 07:50 PM   #10
gardenweed
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I've been doing some more testing.

I have a simple theory...

When I open the email using my finger on the touch screen, my finger must be staying on the screen for just a bit longer than a mouse click.
In that time the email has loaded and my finger is now touching a link to an ad (but it happens so fast I do not see that action happening).

I've had a look at the ad links in the emails, where they are physically on the screen when the email is open, and which ads are loading in the new browser tab.
It seems to correspond, ie - finger location - ad link location.

So my theory is that the ad is not loading from the email preview, but that the email must be opening and my finger must be touching the ad link before I can even register the email opening.
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