this fixes #870

platform/chromium/vapi-background.js

@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 /*******************************************************************************
 
-    µBlock - a browser extension to block requests.
-    Copyright (C) 2014 The µBlock authors
+    uBlock Origin - a browser extension to block requests.
+    Copyright (C) 2014-2016 The uBlock Origin authors
 
     This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
     it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
@@ -788,6 +788,11 @@ vAPI.net.registerListeners = function() {
     var µb = µBlock;
     var µburi = µb.URI;
 
+    // https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=410382
+    // Between Chromium 38-48, plug-ins' network requests were reported as
+    // type "other" instead of "object".
+    var is_v38_48 = /\bChrom[a-z]+\/(?:3[89]|4[0-8])\.[\d.]+\b/.test(navigator.userAgent);
+
     // Chromium-based browsers understand only these network request types.
     var validTypes = {
         'main_frame': true,
@@ -836,6 +841,14 @@ vAPI.net.registerListeners = function() {
     var normalizeRequestDetails = function(details) {
         details.tabId = details.tabId.toString();
 
+        // https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/issues/1493
+        // Chromium 49+ support a new request type: `ping`, which is fired as
+        // a result of using `navigator.sendBeacon`.
+        if ( details.type === 'ping' ) {
+            details.type = 'beacon';
+            return;
+        }
+
         // The rest of the function code is to normalize type
         if ( details.type !== 'other' ) {
             return;
@@ -885,7 +898,9 @@ vAPI.net.registerListeners = function() {
         }
 
         // https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=410382
+        if ( is_v38_48 ) {
             details.type = 'object';
+        }
     };
 
     var onBeforeRequestClient = this.onBeforeRequest.callback;

src/js/tab.js

@@ -807,6 +807,10 @@ vAPI.tabs.registerListeners();
     return this.pageStores[tabId] || null;
 };
 
+µb.mustPageStoreFromTabId = function(tabId) {
+    return this.pageStores[tabId] || this.pageStores[vAPI.noTabId];
+};
+
 /******************************************************************************/
 
 // Permanent page store for behind-the-scene requests. Must never be removed.

src/js/traffic.js

@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 /*******************************************************************************
 
-    uBlock - a browser extension to block requests.
-    Copyright (C) 2014-2015 Raymond Hill
+    uBlock Origin - a browser extension to block requests.
+    Copyright (C) 2014-2016 Raymond Hill
 
     This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
     it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
@@ -47,6 +47,12 @@ var onBeforeRequest = function(details) {
         return onBeforeRootFrameRequest(details);
     }
 
+    // https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/issues/870
+    // This work for Chromium 49+.
+    if ( requestType === 'beacon' ) {
+        return onBeforeBeacon(details);
+    }
+
     // Special treatment: behind-the-scene requests
     var tabId = details.tabId;
     if ( vAPI.isBehindTheSceneTabId(tabId) ) {
@@ -273,6 +279,40 @@ var toBlockDocResult = function(url, hostname, result) {
 
 /******************************************************************************/
 
+// https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/issues/870
+// Finally, Chromium 49+ gained the ability to report network request of type
+// `beacon`, so now we can block them according to the state of the
+// "Disable hyperlink auditing/beacon" setting.
+
+var onBeforeBeacon = function(details) {
+    var µb = µBlock;
+    var tabId = details.tabId;
+    var pageStore = µb.mustPageStoreFromTabId(tabId);
+    var context = pageStore.createContextFromPage();
+    context.requestURL = details.url;
+    context.requestHostname = µb.URI.hostnameFromURI(details.url);
+    context.requestType = details.type;
+    // "g" in "gb:" stands for "global setting"
+    var result = µb.userSettings.hyperlinkAuditingDisabled ? 'gb:' : '';
+    pageStore.logRequest(context, result);
+    if ( µb.logger.isEnabled() ) {
+        µb.logger.writeOne(
+            tabId,
+            'net',
+            result,
+            details.type,
+            details.url,
+            context.rootHostname,
+            context.rootHostname
+        );
+    }
+    if ( result !== '' ) {
+        return { cancel: true };
+    }
+};
+
+/******************************************************************************/
+
 // Intercept and filter behind-the-scene requests.
 
 var onBeforeBehindTheSceneRequest = function(details) {

src/settings.html

@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@
     <li><input id="advanced-user-enabled" type="checkbox" data-setting-name="advancedUserEnabled" data-setting-type="bool"><label data-i18n="settingsAdvancedUserPrompt" for="advanced-user-enabled"></label>
     <li class="subgroup"><span data-i18n="3pGroupPrivacy"></span><ul>
         <li><input id="prefetching-disabled" type="checkbox" data-setting-name="prefetchingDisabled" data-setting-type="bool"><label data-i18n="settingsPrefetchingDisabledPrompt" for="prefetching-disabled"></label> <a class="fa info" href="https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Link_prefetching#Issues_and_criticisms" target="_blank">&#xf05a;</a>
-        <li><input id="hyperlink-auditing-disabled" type="checkbox" data-setting-name="hyperlinkAuditingDisabled" data-setting-type="bool"><label data-i18n="settingsHyperlinkAuditingDisabledPrompt" for="hyperlink-auditing-disabled"></label> <a class="fa info" href="http://www.wilderssecurity.com/threads/hyperlink-auditing-aka-a-ping-and-beacon-aka-navigator-sendbeacon.364904/" target="_blank">&#xf05a;</a>
+        <li><input id="hyperlink-auditing-disabled" type="checkbox" data-setting-name="hyperlinkAuditingDisabled" data-setting-type="bool"><label data-i18n="settingsHyperlinkAuditingDisabledPrompt" for="hyperlink-auditing-disabled"></label> <a class="fa info important" href="https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/wiki/Disable-hyperlink-auditing-beacon" target="_blank">&#xf05a;</a>
         <li><input id="webrtc-ipaddress-hidden" type="checkbox" data-setting-name="webrtcIPAddressHidden" data-setting-type="bool"><label data-i18n="settingsWebRTCIPAddressHiddenPrompt" for="webrtc-ipaddress-hidden"></label> <a class="fa info important" href="https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/wiki/Prevent-WebRTC-from-leaking-local-IP-address" target="_blank">&#xf05a;</a>
         </ul>
     <li class="subgroup"><span data-i18n="settingPerSiteSwitchGroup"></span><ul>