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New editors are unable to create pages with external links in them
Closed, ResolvedPublicBUG REPORT

Description

Steps to replicate the issue (include links if applicable):

{{Cite web
| last = Jensen
| first = Nathan D.
| title = General Alexandre-Louis-Robert Girardin d'Ermenonville (1776-1855)
| url = https://www.frenchempire.net/biographies/girardin/
| website = frenchempire.net
| access-date = 31 October 2025
}}
  • Press "Publish page"

What happens?:
The page reloads with no notice, peeking at logstash tells me: "ConfirmEdit: new captcha session; 1x url trigger by '<my IP>' at [[Draft:Cross-site leaks]]: https://www.frenchempire.net/biographies/girardin/" but no CAPTCHA is shown to me

What should have happened instead?:

The page should show a CAPTCHA or the edit should have been published

Originally reported by Qcne in the NPP discord server in this thread

Event Timeline

Based on the fact that VE shows a CAPTCHA in the same flow, I'm going to add ConfirmEdit (CAPTCHA extension) and the PSI team who I know was working on some CAPTCHA related work on ConfirmEdit recently!

Is it all new drafts, or just ones with external URLs?

Only ones with external URLs! I tried the same flow with page content with no references, and it went through.

Soda renamed this task from New editors are unable to create draft articles to New editors are unable to create draft articles with external link in them.Nov 1 2025, 7:09 PM
SD0001 triaged this task as Unbreak Now! priority.Nov 1 2025, 7:28 PM
SD0001 subscribed.

Sounds like a UBN. All drafts are expected to include external links (references).

Soda renamed this task from New editors are unable to create draft articles with external link in them to New editors are unable to create any page with external link in them.Nov 1 2025, 7:41 PM
Samwalton9-WMF renamed this task from New editors are unable to create any page with external link in them to New editors are unable to create pages with external links in them.Nov 1 2025, 7:41 PM

I verified that it seems to be limited to creating a new page -- I was correctly shown a captcha while adding that sample-reference to an existing (sandbox) page, and completing it saved it correctly.

I suspect it's related to rECOE2a2f46f7685c: CaptchaConsequence: Re-use existing SimpleCaptcha instance, which intended to make usage of Hooks::getInstance() more consistent by passing an $action parameter, and in doing so, didn't account for the addurl case.

Change #1200483 had a related patch set uploaded (by Kosta Harlan; author: Kosta Harlan):

[mediawiki/extensions/ConfirmEdit@master] [WIP] SimpleCaptcha: Don't assume 'edit' as the action in some hooks

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/1200483

Change #1200640 had a related patch set uploaded (by Kosta Harlan; author: Kosta Harlan):

[mediawiki/extensions/WikiEditor@master] Hooks: Fetch correct SimpleCaptcha instance in onEditPage__attemptSave_after

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/1200640

Apologies for the disruption. We should be able to review and deploy patches to fix this on Monday.

Change #1200483 merged by jenkins-bot:

[mediawiki/extensions/ConfirmEdit@master] SimpleCaptcha: Ensure correct instance is used on page creation

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/1200483

Change #1201185 had a related patch set uploaded (by Kosta Harlan; author: Kosta Harlan):

[mediawiki/extensions/ConfirmEdit@wmf/1.45.0-wmf.25] SimpleCaptcha: Ensure correct instance is used on page creation

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/1201185

Change #1201185 merged by jenkins-bot:

[mediawiki/extensions/ConfirmEdit@wmf/1.45.0-wmf.25] SimpleCaptcha: Ensure correct instance is used on page creation

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/1201185

Change #1200640 merged by jenkins-bot:

[mediawiki/extensions/WikiEditor@master] Hooks: Fetch correct SimpleCaptcha instance in onEditPage__attemptSave_after

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/1200640

Mentioned in SAL (#wikimedia-operations) [2025-11-03T19:50:41Z] <kharlan@deploy2002> Started scap sync-world: Backport for [[gerrit:1201185|SimpleCaptcha: Ensure correct instance is used on page creation (T408975)]]

Change #1201189 had a related patch set uploaded (by Kosta Harlan; author: Kosta Harlan):

[mediawiki/extensions/WikiEditor@wmf/1.45.0-wmf.25] Hooks: Fetch correct SimpleCaptcha instance in onEditPage__attemptSave_after

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/1201189

Mentioned in SAL (#wikimedia-operations) [2025-11-03T19:52:42Z] <kharlan@deploy2002> kharlan: Backport for [[gerrit:1201185|SimpleCaptcha: Ensure correct instance is used on page creation (T408975)]] synced to the testservers (see https://wikitech.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mwdebug). Changes can now be verified there.

Mentioned in SAL (#wikimedia-operations) [2025-11-03T19:58:03Z] <kharlan@deploy2002> Finished scap sync-world: Backport for [[gerrit:1201185|SimpleCaptcha: Ensure correct instance is used on page creation (T408975)]] (duration: 07m 22s)

kostajh lowered the priority of this task from Unbreak Now! to Needs Triage.Nov 3 2025, 8:00 PM

The above patch has been synced out. The issue should be resolved now.

Change #1201189 merged by jenkins-bot:

[mediawiki/extensions/WikiEditor@wmf/1.45.0-wmf.25] Hooks: Fetch correct SimpleCaptcha instance in onEditPage__attemptSave_after

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/1201189

Mentioned in SAL (#wikimedia-operations) [2025-11-03T20:10:25Z] <kharlan@deploy2002> Started scap sync-world: Backport for [[gerrit:1201189|Hooks: Fetch correct SimpleCaptcha instance in onEditPage__attemptSave_after (T408975)]]

Mentioned in SAL (#wikimedia-operations) [2025-11-03T20:12:29Z] <kharlan@deploy2002> kharlan: Backport for [[gerrit:1201189|Hooks: Fetch correct SimpleCaptcha instance in onEditPage__attemptSave_after (T408975)]] synced to the testservers (see https://wikitech.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mwdebug). Changes can now be verified there.

Mentioned in SAL (#wikimedia-operations) [2025-11-03T20:17:47Z] <kharlan@deploy2002> Finished scap sync-world: Backport for [[gerrit:1201189|Hooks: Fetch correct SimpleCaptcha instance in onEditPage__attemptSave_after (T408975)]] (duration: 07m 22s)

dom_walden subscribed.

I have been able to make edits on enwiki beta with external links. I saw the AbuseFilter captcha consequence as appropriate and was able to fill in the challenge and publish the edit.