YouTube and about:blank

General discussion about the NoScript extension for Firefox
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Tom Austin
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Joined: Sun Apr 18, 2010 6:13 pm

YouTube and about:blank

Post by Tom Austin »

I use Firefox 3.5.9. Lately when I try to watch YouTube videos, I have to temporarily allow about:blank. I don't know what about:blank is or why it's now necessary. I've heard about:blank is dangerous.

QUESTION: Is there a way to automatically allow about:blank only for YouTube? I've whitelisted YouTube, but that doesn't work. Thanks.

Tom Austin
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Giorgio Maone
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Re: YouTube and about:blank

Post by Giorgio Maone »

  1. Allowing about:blank is not dangerous
  2. Nevertheless, it's the first time I hear it is required to run Youtube movies. Can I see an URL where it happens?
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Tom Austin
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Re: YouTube and about:blank

Post by Tom Austin »

Here's one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9isKnDiJNPk

Thanks for checking on it. Now that I know about:blank is not dangerous, is there a way to allow about:blank globally or at least automatically for YouTube?

Tom
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Giorgio Maone
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Re: YouTube and about:blank

Post by Giorgio Maone »

That video is working just fine for me, with or without about:blank, as soon as I allow the canonical youtube.com and ytimg.com pair.
Could you check if NoScript Options|Reset helps?
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Tom Austin
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Re: YouTube and about:blank

Post by Tom Austin »

Thanks, I've got it working now without having to allow about:blank. I revoked the temporary permissions, which in itself didn't fix it. I had a hunch it may be an interaction with Flashblock, which I disabled. Upon restarting FF, the video started playing. Then I enabled Flashblock, which allowed me to manually start the video, which now does not require about:blank to play.

I don't know why that made a difference, but it's working now. Thanks for the help!

Tom
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Giorgio Maone
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Re: YouTube and about:blank

Post by Giorgio Maone »

BTW, did you try replacing FlashBlock with NoScript Options|Embeddings|Apply these restrictions to whitelisted sites as well?
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Tom Austin
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Re: YouTube and about:blank

Post by Tom Austin »

I just now tried it. I knew NoScript has Flash blocking capability, but I didn't know how to implement it. I disabled Flashblock and it works just fine. Looks like I won't need Flashblock. THANKS!

Tom
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