Chrome, Firefox, and Edge version 100 problem — expect sites to break
Three commonly-used internet browsers are nearing their 100th versions, and Engadget reported that the triple-digit release numbers in the browsers’ User-Agents (UA) could cause problems with several websites.
The browsers in question — Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and Microsoft Edge — could cause some websites to break when they roll over from a two-digit to three-digit version number.
According to Mozilla, part of the problem is that there is no single specification for developers to follow.
“Without a single specification to follow, different browsers have different formats for the User-Agent string, and site-specific User-Agent parsing,” it said in a blog post.
“It’s possible that some parsing libraries may have hard-coded assumptions or bugs that don’t take into account three-digit major version numbers.”
The browsers’ release schedules indicate that each 100th version will roll out in quick succession.
Microsoft and Google will release version 100 of their browsers towards the end of March, and Mozilla will release Firefox’s 100th version in early May.
Notable sites that could still be affected by the updates include Bethesda, HBO Go, and Yahoo, as they are reportedly currently unable to parse a user-agent string containing a three-digit number.
Navigating to an affected site on these browser versions can result in several errors such as “browser not supported” messages, site rendering issues, parsing failures, and 403 errors.
However, Google and Mozilla have developed a solution for sites that cannot resolve the issues before the launch of the updates.
Both browsers will halt version numbers at 99 in the UA strings or implement code overrides to fix the problems.
They have also requested that concerned developers test their sites using Firefox or Chrome version 100 UAs.
Now read: Google bringing ad-friendly privacy feature to Android
Loading ...