Signal-ios: Large photos (e.g. from a smart phone camera) cannot be opened at all on Signal 2.29.1

[jmhertlein]

• [x] I have searched open and closed issues for duplicates
• [x] I am submitting a bug report for existing functionality that does not work as intended
• [x] This isn't a feature request or a discussion topic

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Bug description

After the recent update that changes it so signal doesn't display image previews for large-dimension images, images are no longer viewable in any way. Tapping on an image just brings up the "share" dialog.

Steps to reproduce

• send an image, or receive an image. In this case, my SO is sending photos taken on a Samsung Note 8's primary camera to my iphone.
• You'll see it just says "JPG" and a file size, instead of showing the thumbnail/preview
• Tapping on it does not open it, just pops up the "select an app" picker.

Actual result: There is no clear way to view images in the app anymore.

Expected result: I should be able to easily view these images.

Device info

Device: iPhone 8S

iOS version: 11.4.1

Signal version: 2.29.1

[czekaj]

I have anecdotal evidence of the same thing happening when I send a photo taken with my Pixel 2 camera app or an mp4 video I downloaded. I use Signal 4.24.8 for Android on my Pixel 2 to send the photo/video. The other party is on iOS with Signal 2.29.1 and they can't see it.

Smaller photos, like ones saved by WhatsApp (which resizes and compresses photos) or photos taken directly by Signal app are received without a problem on Signal 2.29.1 on iOS.

[vaxus]

I am seeing the same issue as well.

Device: iPhone 7 Plus

iOS Version: 11.4.1

Signal Version: 2.29.1.1

See attached screenshot.

[nzbart]

This is affecting me, also. Is it only affecting a small group of people, or is it a really inconvenient bug that's affecting everyone?

[czekaj]

Has anyone experienced this issue iOS -> iOS?

So far we have at least two examples of Android -> iOS (arrow is from sender to receiver) which might indicate special format of Android photos/videos.

[nzbart]

Good point - my scenario is Android -> iOS as well.

[lostwithouthope]

Same issue here wenn picture is sent from Android to iOS, but not in the other direction.

[zynexiz]

My friend has an iOS device, and I'm on Android 8 (Sony firmware) and we both have this problem both ways. He can download it to show the image, in my case I don't even see that a image is sent.

A smaller image size works though, it seems it's just big images that fail.

[czekaj]

I guess we'll need @michaelkirk-signal / @michaelkirk to get involved since he made the changes related to image and video validation in 2.29.1.

[skbdba192]

Can confirm that iOS>iOS is having the same problem, as well as iOS>Android and back, for me at least. I am running iOS 12 pub beta 10, and signal 2.29.1.1

[KienHui]

I'm just here to boost the signal on this issue. I've got the same issue (as does my family members on iOS).

[KienHui]

So, looking through at the commit, I think the cause is in https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-iOS/blob/e715bf9ea2f51e2d0c4549d7b4fa68e442e4d026/SignalServiceKit/src/Util/NSData%2BImage.m , around line 138. It effectively restricts the image to being 4 megapixel in resolution. However, we're still sending images larger than that. If CGFloat kMaxDimension = 2 * 1024; is changed to CGFloat kMaxDimension = 4 * 1024; Then most people's phones will be perfectly fine (until resolution increases for most people again). Or at least, it's there for pictures not showing up.

[jmhertlein]

Independent of the threshold that an image is considered "too large", I think it's also a UX bug that images like this cannot be opened seamlessly in the image viewer. The main bug that the patch in question was fixing was a DoS attack bug, right? From creating the thumbnail automatically being able to exhaust memory with a maliciously-crafted image? (Like a pure-white PNG that's 1B pixels by 1B pixels).

If that's the case, I don't see why using the built-in seamless image viewer isn't an option, since the user tapping the icon would only result in one crash, and not a complete inability to view the conversation. And it's the same crash that would otherwise happen in any other image viewer the user does use to open the image.

I think this issue would be much lower priority if the original patch had preserved the ability to still use the built-in image viewer.

[jmhertlein]

I realize that the patch is probably just making it act like a file upload instead of an image upload, and that it's probably additional work to make the image-upload be able to not show the thumbnail, but if it fixes the UX bug, I think it is worth it.

[michaelkirk-signal]

Hey all, thanks for the feedback. We're aware of this issue and working on fixing it.

[mossmann]

A little workaround I found for viewing "large" images within Signal: Copy and paste the image into an outgoing message (which you need not send). It isn't a great workaround, but maybe it will help someone until this issue is addressed.

[greveritt]

My friend with an iPhone said he saved the file and opened it in another program. He said that did it.

[mossmann]

Yes, exporting a large image works, but that exposes the image to another app, which could be undesirable for viewing private images.

[jmhertlein]

It's also terrible UX, which IMO is a security concern, since it might drive users to a less-secure but more-convenient alternative.

[michaelkirk-signal]

This is fixed in the current beta. If you'd like to help test before we get to production, send a message to [email protected] with the subject "sign me up for the iOS beta"

[wormeyman]

I don't see this issue taged in any commits what ended up being the fix?

[zynexiz]

Got the update today, and as far as I can tell it's working.

[karlstr]

When will this be in production?

[michaelkirk-signal]

This fix has shipped with the 2.29.2 release - in the app store as of a few minutes ago.

[czekaj]

Just tested it and it seems to work for large photos but large videos still don't work 😢
Should we open another issue?

[mschenchang]

But this problem still exist for my phone: iphone 6s, latest version of signal. The photo I sent is fine, I can see them, but not the photo other people sent to me, it's written always JPG file as shown above, no matter how big how small it is.

[michaelkirk-signal]

@czekaj - what was the source of the videos? Do you know their resolution? Can you provide an example?

[michaelkirk-signal]

@mschenchang - What version, exactly, are you running? Can you submit a debug log?

[anniejalota]

Thanks for the fix! My app didn't auto-update but just updated the app to 2.29.2 and seemed to have resolved the issue.

[LKBorg]

Damn iOS AppStore didn't showed me the update! ^^

So, I filed a bug report, since this was the latest (.1) update. Yeeez.
Thanks to your "[ ] checked if already exist in the forum" tick mark, I found this! ^^

Thanks for the fast bugfix! :)

[mlindner]

I'm seeing this same issue still.

[mmannes]

I'm seeing this same issue still.

Same here. Picture below shows how galery looks like:

When I wait a few time, like 30 seconds, some pictures become visible but when I scroll just a few pixels they become black again and sometimes another one shows and hides while scrolling a little more.

I am having this issue using a Samsung Galaxy S9. My wife's phone is a S9+ and this bug does not seems to occur.