Can't login to Launchpad without sending referer header

[Victor Engmark]

Trying to log in to https://login.launchpad.net always fails with Firefox (any version) when network.http.sendRefererHeader is set to 0. Error message:

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Your page was stale.

Apologies, the page you came from was a little old. Perhaps you navigated here from a browser window other than the one you used to login. If so, try using the other browser window. Or, try your action again, starting from our home page.
Go to our home page
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Setting network.http.sendRefererHeader to the default value of 2 is a workaround, but is not recommended by for example EFF for privacy reasons.

[Dave Morley (davmor2)]

Currently this is the expected behaviour this may change in the future but possibly not during this release cycle.

[Santosh (santosh.k83)]

Just adding that the same behaviour is experienced when logging in to ubuntuforums.org through the Ubuntu SSO service.

[John (human395234)]

I believe the duplicate status of this bug is incorrect. The present bug seems to be a complaint about the fact that https://login.launchpad.net requires a referer header to be sent by the browser, or else the login will fail. Bug #1087323 seems to be a complaint about the wording of the failed login page, specifically, that it should say "You need to turn on HTTP Referer headers".

[Mateusz Jończyk (mat-jonczyk)]

Well, come on, I have to enable referer every time I log in to Launchpad.

[Christian Kujau (christiank)]

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Network.http.sendRefererHeader
> Recommended settings
> Those concerned with privacy can set this to 0, realizing that this may
> adversely affect some sites. Those wanting to ensure compatibility should
> leave it at the default.

Please Ubuntu, do allow logins to Launchpad w/o users having to sacrifice their privacy settings. It's bad enough that HTTP referer exist in the first place, but please do not (ab)use them in your login logic.

[Richard Voogd (Lisati) (lisati)]

Just a thought. The SSO login system used by the Ubuntu forums bypasses the normal vBulletin login system. It navigates away from the main forum site to grab your login details and then return you to the site when you've successfully logged in. In some situations, the referred information is useful for automatically directing you back to the page you were viewing before you logged in.