Brave-browser: Crash reporting connects to clientservices.googleapis.com on startup

[tomlowenthal]

Crash reporting reaches out to clientservices.googleapis.com. Discovered when crash reporting was enabled by default in Nightly channel

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Original issue description

Just installed Version 0.64.7 Chromium: 73.0.3683.75 (Official Build) nightly (64-bit).

[bbondy]

@tomlowenthal Do you know the full URL? I think we have a network audit in CI so not sure why it wouldn't catch it.
Only Nightly?

[tomlowenthal]

I think only Nightly, but I didn't reinstall Dev yesterday to check. It's not a behavior I've seen before, but I think the last time I tested was about a week ago with Dev. I don't have the URL because my firewall couldn't get that out of the HTTPS connection.

[pilgrim-brave]

Potential sources:

• components/metrics/url_constants.cc::kNewMetricsServerUrl
• components/variations/variations_url_constants.cc::kDefaultServerUrl

[pilgrim-brave]

OK according to PJ it's kNewMetricsServerUrl

[simonhong]

I think this happened by https://github.com/brave/brave-core/pull/1985.
That PR turned on metrics reporting by default for dev/nightly for crash reporting.
That means latest dev have same issue if user don't it off explicitly.
So, stable/beta could have this issue when user turn on crash reporting explicitly.

[jumde]

Re-opened with C74 revert

[srirambv]

@jumde any test plan for the CI builds? I only see npm tests on #2095 .

[kjozwiak]

Assuming @LaurenWags and myself can check using Little Snitch to make sure we're not connecting to clientservices.googleapis.com at startup. As @srirambv mentioned above, is there a better way to Win/Linux?

[jumde]

@kjozwiak @srirambv - Fiddler works really well on Win/Linux https://www.telerik.com/download/fiddler

@btlechowski @srirambv - Test plan specified here: https://github.com/brave/brave-core/pull/2095

Let me know if you have any questions.

[btlechowski]

Edit: Below findings are a know issue: https://github.com/brave/brave-browser/issues/1947

On Windows 10 x64, Brave connects to gvt1.com domain.

Steps:

1. Clean profile
2. Go to settings through hamburger menu

URLs:

http://redirector.gvt1.com:443
https://redirector.gvt1.com/edgedl/chrome/dict/en-us-8-0.bdic
http://r5---sn-f5f7lnel.gvt1.com:443
https://r5---sn-f5f7lnel.gvt1.com/edgedl/chrome/dict/en-us-8-0.bdic?cms_redirect=yes&mip=188.121.0.11&mm=28&mn=sn-f5f7lnel&ms=nvh&mt=1554156499&mv=m&pl=19&shardbypass=yes

Tested on

Brave | 0.62.49 Chromium: 73.0.3683.86 (Official Build) (64-bit)
-- | --
Revision | f9b0bec6063ea50ce2b71f5b9abbae7beee319a6-refs/branch-heads/3683@{#858}
OS | Windows 10 OS Build 17134.523

[btlechowski]

Verification passed on

Brave | 0.62.49 Chromium: 73.0.3683.86 (Official Build) (64-bit)
-- | --
Revision | f9b0bec6063ea50ce2b71f5b9abbae7beee319a6-refs/branch-heads/3683@{#858}
OS | Windows 10 OS Build 17134.523

Brave | 0.63.28 Chromium: 73.0.3683.75 (Official Build) beta (64-bit)
-- | --
Revision | 909ee014fcea6828f9a610e6716145bc0b3ebf4a-refs/branch-heads/3683@{#803}
OS | Windows 10 OS Build 17134.523

Used test plan from https://github.com/brave/brave-core/pull/2095
Reproduced https://github.com/brave/brave-browser/issues/1947 while testing

Verification PASSED on macOS 10.14.3 x64 using the following build:

Brave | 0.62.49 Chromium: 73.0.3683.86 (Official Build) (64-bit)
-- | --
Revision | f9b0bec6063ea50ce2b71f5b9abbae7beee319a6-refs/branch-heads/3683@{#858}
OS | Mac OS X

• ensured that Brave doesn't contact any Google API's at startup
• ensured that Brave doesn't contact any Google API's after enabling crash reports
• crashed via brave://crash and ensured that Brave didn't contact Google API's after sending report
• crashed via chrome://gpu and checked the same case as mentioned above
• left Brave running for ~1hr or so and ensured we didn't contact any Google API's

Verified passed on macOS 10.13.6 with

Brave | 0.62.49 Chromium: 73.0.3683.86 (Official Build) (64-bit)
-- | --
Revision | f9b0bec6063ea50ce2b71f5b9abbae7beee319a6-refs/branch-heads/3683@{#858}
OS | Mac OS X

• Verified test plan from https://github.com/brave/brave-core/pull/2095
• Verified that Brave doesn't contact any Google API's at startup
• Verified that Brave doesn't contact any Google API's after enabling crash reports
• Crashed via brave://crash and verified that Brave didn't contact Google API's after sending report

Verification passed on

Brave | 0.63.29 Chromium: 73.0.3683.75 (Official Build) beta (64-bit)
-- | --
Revision | 909ee014fcea6828f9a610e6716145bc0b3ebf4a-refs/branch-heads/3683@{#803}
OS | Linux

• Verified test plan from https://github.com/brave/brave-core/pull/2095
• Verified brave://crash didnt connect to any Google API request
• Verified enabling crash report by default doesn't contact any Google API
• Verified that Brave doesn't contact any Google API's at startup

[kjozwiak]

@LaurenWags if the above worked for you, can you label this as QA/Passed for macOS? Thanks!