Help please [400 Bad Request] Topic is solved

[vannilla]

Alright, since it works on a new profile I investigated some more and it turns out to be a user agent string issue.
Since I use the "Native" option it gives me a 400 response; the only working option is "Firefox compatibility" unless a site-specific user agent string is used specifically for DDG.

[dtoxic]

Oh ok,using native also on my main profile,so it's DDG after all

[Moonchild]

Thanks, I've confirmed the issue being dependent on UA string presented and passed this along to DDG. I'm guessing (since it's an nginx error page, i.e. their internet-facing front-end) that this was an attempt by them to combat bot scraping of search results or similar, causing false positives on Pale Moon (and other UXP-based browsers) if they are not set to Firefox Compatibility mode. Both Gecko compat and Native UA modes trigger the error page.

[dtoxic]

thx for the info will mark this as solved then since it's not on PM's end

[Tharthan]

Thanks, I've confirmed the issue being dependent on UA string presented and passed this along to DDG.

I hope that they fix this issue, but supposing that they do not, would the inclusion of a site-specific user agent override going forward be a possibility?

[Moonchild]

I'd expect that a partner would actually fix these issues on their end. If for some reason they do not, then a UA override can of course be used, but it really shouldn't be necessary for us to work around their bug on our end.

[Lexx Diamond]

I've been having the same problem for a while. Thanks for all the feed back and resolution.

[ron_1]

Nine days have passed and not fixed yet. I think that's disappointing, but maybe I'm overreacting? I know there's a work-around, but every time you clear your cookies you have to reset it.

[frostknight]

Funny, I just noticed that today... weird...

[Moonchild]

I've sent DDG a reminder and recap of the issue and that it has not been fixed yet.

[Old_Radio]

Nine days have passed and not fixed yet. I think that's disappointing, but maybe I'm overreacting? I know there's a work-around, but every time you clear your cookies you have to reset it.

Sure there is a workaround.

1) First, a recommended privacy item. Do not ever search with any search engine thru a browser's
search/address bar. Yes, some folks revenue stream may be impacted.

2) Make a bookmark for DDG. Do this after you go to DDG's main page, look at all the Settings
sections accessed thru the hamburger menu @ top right.

3) Turn on/off the settings as you like. Redirect is located under the Privacy tab. Turn it off.

4) Go to 'Show Bookmarklet....'. Save the string as a bookmark in PM.

5) Flushing your cache now makes no difference has no effect. Enjoy!

[Moonchild]

1) First, a recommended privacy item. Do not ever search with any search engine thru a browser's
search/address bar. Yes, some folks revenue stream may be impacted.

What nonsense. Not only is DDG a privacy-respecting search engine, it also makes no difference whether you search from the search bar or from a DDG page or bookmarklet, with the only difference that if you go to duckduckgo.com without using the browser's functionalities, that yes, indeed, you will be depriving the project from one of the zero-effort ways of financial support. No, DDG does not profile you - go read their privacy statement. The only difference is that using the search bar or address bar (or home page search) adds a marker so DDG knows it came from a Pale Moon user so they can assign that search to our partnership.

3) Turn on/off the settings as you like. Redirect is located under the Privacy tab. Turn it off.

This is the only instruction that matters.
Alternatively, use Pale Moon's default in preferences to use "Firefox compatibility" in the user agent setting.
Either will work around the issue.

[BenFenner]

1) First, a recommended privacy item. Do not ever search with any search engine thru a browser's
search/address bar. Yes, some folks revenue stream may be impacted.

I think you meant this advice for browsers with telemetry? That makes sense.

Pale Moon does not have telemetry, so no issues there.

[Moonchild]

An update here after they initially had issues reproducing it on their end, and working with my DDG contact to home in on the issue:

That (sic: providing techincal details and test searches to them) was really useful and the team now has a good lead on the issue. They're consistently reproducing and investigating a change in the redirect link generation. Has attention from Security, Engineering and Privacy teams - not sure it'll get resolved by today but seems to be good progress. I'll report back when I know more.

So, it's in the pipeline to get fixed now.

[Goodydino]

Are you saying that every time you clear private data, that clears user-agent override settings? I have not seen that, but I have the overrides saved in a user.js file, so they would be restored anyway. That might be the solution to the problem.

[Moonchild]

Are you saying that every time you clear private data, that clears user-agent override settings?

It shouldn't, as it's stored in preferences, not in any of the storage locations for private data.

[Moonchild]

Update from DDG - they let me know a fix for this has been rolled out; I tested it and it seems to be solved.
Please do let us know if it isn't solved for anyone.

[dtoxic]

Seems to be fixed,will give it a few days to be sure.

[Tharthan]

Update from DDG - they let me know a fix for this has been rolled out; I tested it and it seems to be solved.
Please do let us know if it isn't solved for anyone.

It does appear to have been fixed. I have not encountered any issues for the past few days.