Images no longer load

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ejenner
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Images no longer load

Post by ejenner »

I'm sure I'm not the first person to ask this but...

There seem to have been some changes in browsers at some point which I didn't see happening but clearly it's a thing.

Images using the [img] tags inside threads don't seem to load even if the images can be opened in a new browser tab.

What is causing this and can the web host do anything to make retrospectively broken links in thousands of threads visible again?

If I open the same pages from multiple different BBs using Internet Explorer all the same pages show the images in the BB threads.
Last edited by Kailey on Thu Sep 30, 2021 10:37 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Reason: Topic icon changed
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warmweer
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Re: Images no longer load

Post by warmweer »

Without more knowledge of your board all guesses made are baseless.
Please post the Support Request Template (include all relevant info, e.g. a link to your board so that we can see problem in action).
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invenio
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Re: Images no longer load

Post by invenio »

Check on a different computer. This is not a phpBB issue but rather your web browser or more likely something with your hosting. I think these forums would be full with this issue if suddenly images on phpbb didn't show on web browsers.
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thecoalman
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Re: Images no longer load

Post by thecoalman »

The likely culprit is content security policy which can be added as header sent to browser when it loads a page. You can for example limit the browser to only files from the same domain, only over https and a bunch of other things.

A link to your forum would help.
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ejenner
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Re: Images no longer load

Post by ejenner »

I've found out that the issue is called Insecure Content Blocking.

It became enabled by default in all the major browsers possibly towards the end of last year although I've not seen the definitive date.

This affects ALL images in EVERYBODY's bulletin boards where the image URL is specified thusly: [img]http://link to image[/img]

It may be the case that if your image host is configured to support HTTPS then it can redirect requests from the http link to a https link and the content will be displayed.

So comes down to a question of whether or not the redirection works or if there are other workarounds. Many boards do not allow editing of old posts and most boards have many thousands of contributions with all images missing where they are hosted on http only webspace.
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thecoalman
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Re: Images no longer load

Post by thecoalman »

Browsers are not blocking non https content out of the box. Firstly there is new setting in Firefox that will force https but you need to enable it. It will attempt to load https version but if the site serving the image doesn't have valid SSL certificate it will fail to load. Chrome is getting this too if it doesn't have it already. Put this URL into your browser, it should load non http version unless you have enabled that feature in your browser.

Code: Select all

http://apache.org/img/asf-estd-1999-logo.jpg
As side not because of the way external images are handled here on phpbb.com you cannot test anything here which is why I didn't just include it in img tag.

Secondly and getting back to the content security policy or CSP, this is something enabled server side and will affect all browsers. This is part of the http header and you can direct the browser as to which domains can load content, require https and many other things like disallow inline JS and CSS. This is to help secure the page against malicious changes made by third parties. This would of been enabled by your host or yourself.
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Forex Station
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Re: Images no longer load

Post by Forex Station »

ejenner wrote: Thu Sep 09, 2021 3:37 pm There seem to have been some changes in browsers at some point which I didn't see happening but clearly it's a thing.
That's concerning. This hasn't affected our phpBB board yet and thanks for the heads up, but it's weird that it's affected yours :cry:

Any chance we can get a link to your board? Just want to see what's going on.

Edit: Better still, perhaps a screenshot of the actual issue? Thanks.
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ejenner
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Re: Images no longer load

Post by ejenner »

I'm not currently the administrator for any boards personally. I know of at least 4 bulletin boards off the top of my head where this is an issue.

This isn't a PHPBB forum but the problem is present here: https://forum.retro-rides.org/thread/35 ... 1-vw-jetta

This is the image link: http://static.hugedomains.com/images/lo ... omains.gif

It's actually just an advert because the original content has really disappeared from the server but when you initially load this site in Edge / Chrome you get a 'missing image' icon. If you right-click and ask to open the image in a new tab it'll show the image.
ejenner
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Re: Images no longer load

Post by ejenner »

So it must be a genuine issue if people are no longer disputing the terms of my posting?

What if any workaround is there for old http: image links?
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janus_zonstraal
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Re: Images no longer load

Post by janus_zonstraal »

I don't see that image on the page from your link?
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thecoalman
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Re: Images no longer load

Post by thecoalman »

What if any workaround is there for old http: image links?
If the browser is making a request for https for whatever reason and the site does not have valid SSl cert, not much.
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3Di
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Re: Images no longer load

Post by 3Di »

Actually http://static.hugedomains.com/images/logo_huge_domains.gif is
blacklisted as infected with URL:blacklist
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thecoalman
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Re: Images no longer load

Post by thecoalman »

I edited my previous post as I was misinterpreting something. That site has CSP that enforces https. The https request is timing out.

When you right click and open in new tab that is no longer in effect, the http request is made and redirected to the hugedomains image.
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3Di
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Re: Images no longer load

Post by 3Di »

thecoalman wrote: Tue Sep 21, 2021 5:49 am When you right click and open in new tab that is no longer in effect, the http request is made and redirected to the hugedomains image.
Not here.
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thecoalman
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Re: Images no longer load

Post by thecoalman »

But that's got nothing to do with the browser, it's AVG kicking.
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