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Re: Captive network account (w/ login redirect) and HSTS



On Sun, Apr 02, 2017 at 06:36:25PM +0200, Marc SCHAEFER wrote:
Hello,

with a basic Debian jessie install and a recent Firefox, I observe the
following:

  [1] Debian has no specific support for detecting captive networks
      (e.g. Android, iOS) and redirecting automatically the browser to
      the captive login page

  [2] launching Firefox on the default page doesn't work (doesn't get
      redirected properly to the login page but fails with a HTTPS
      certificate error), if there is a recent HSTS[*] security
      configuration cache for the default domain page (e.g. google.com)

[1] is not really an issue: I wouldn't like myself that connecting to
a WiFi captive network starts a browser. Also, open captive networks are
messing up, dangerous, a WPA/RADIUS auth would be much better.

However, open captive networks are quite commons in hotels, airports,
parks, etc.  So it cannot be dismissed.

[2] the only fix is to type an URL you know is HTTP, not HTTPS and does
not configure HSTS, and does not support DNSSEC. In my case I used
ptiturl.ch

Maybe this could be in the Debian User manual somehow?

Feel free to contact me if you want help in writing the documentation.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTP_Strict_Transport_Security


I believe the way Android works is, when the network interface changes,
a request is fired off to a known page on Google. If that page returns a
known HTTP code (200, I think), then everything is OK. But if it returns
301 (Moved Permanently), 302 (Found) or, preferably 511 (Network
Authentication Required), then a one-shot browser is opened.

I think this would be a great feature request for Network-Manager (which
has the abiliity to monitor the network AND has a GUI AND is part of the
default Debian).

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