New tab rapidly opens and closes upon connection on a fresh installation of the browser

I have run into strange behavior which I just want to check is not malicious.

Linux Mint 22.1
Tor Browser 14.5.1
Tor Browser Security Level: Standard, all settings default

After opening an installation of the browser for the first time and clicking connect shortly after opening, after successful connection, within 10-30 seconds a new tab opens and immediately closes.

This happens with both flatpak and manual installation, but does not happen if I wait 2 minutes before connecting after first start.

2025-05-09 17:10:30.618
[NOTICE] DisableNetwork is set. Tor will not make or accept non-control network connections. Shutting down all existing connections.
2025-05-09 17:10:30.627
[NOTICE] DisableNetwork is set. Tor will not make or accept non-control network connections. Shutting down all existing connections.
2025-05-09 17:10:30.632
[NOTICE] DisableNetwork is set. Tor will not make or accept non-control network connections. Shutting down all existing connections.
2025-05-09 17:10:30.636
[NOTICE] Renaming old configuration file to "/home/user/Downloads/tor-browser/Browser/TorBrowser/Data/Tor/torrc.orig.1"
2025-05-09 17:10:31.557
[NOTICE] Opening Socks listener on 127.0.0.1:9150
2025-05-09 17:10:31.557
[NOTICE] Opened Socks listener connection (ready) on 127.0.0.1:9150
2025-05-09 17:10:32.434
[NOTICE] Bootstrapped 5% (conn): Connecting to a relay
2025-05-09 17:10:32.558
[NOTICE] Bootstrapped 10% (conn_done): Connected to a relay
2025-05-09 17:10:32.687
[NOTICE] Bootstrapped 14% (handshake): Handshaking with a relay
2025-05-09 17:10:32.942
[NOTICE] Bootstrapped 15% (handshake_done): Handshake with a relay done
2025-05-09 17:10:32.943
[NOTICE] Bootstrapped 20% (onehop_create): Establishing an encrypted directory connection
2025-05-09 17:10:33.066
[NOTICE] Bootstrapped 25% (requesting_status): Asking for networkstatus consensus
2025-05-09 17:10:33.190
[NOTICE] Bootstrapped 30% (loading_status): Loading networkstatus consensus
2025-05-09 17:10:34.183
[NOTICE] I learned some more directory information, but not enough to build a circuit: We have no usable consensus.
2025-05-09 17:10:34.316
[NOTICE] Bootstrapped 40% (loading_keys): Loading authority key certs
2025-05-09 17:10:34.452
[NOTICE] The current consensus has no exit nodes. Tor can only build internal paths, such as paths to onion services.
2025-05-09 17:10:34.452
[NOTICE] Bootstrapped 45% (requesting_descriptors): Asking for relay descriptors
2025-05-09 17:10:34.452
[NOTICE] I learned some more directory information, but not enough to build a circuit: We need more microdescriptors: we have 0/8619, and can only build 0% of likely paths. (We have 0% of guards bw, 0% of midpoint bw, and 0% of end bw (no exits in consensus, using mid) = 0% of path bw.)
2025-05-09 17:10:34.564
[NOTICE] Bootstrapped 50% (loading_descriptors): Loading relay descriptors
2025-05-09 17:10:35.188
[NOTICE] The current consensus contains exit nodes. Tor can build exit and internal paths.
2025-05-09 17:10:36.621
[NOTICE] Bootstrapped 55% (loading_descriptors): Loading relay descriptors
2025-05-09 17:10:40.073
[NOTICE] Bootstrapped 60% (loading_descriptors): Loading relay descriptors
2025-05-09 17:10:40.735
[NOTICE] Bootstrapped 67% (loading_descriptors): Loading relay descriptors
2025-05-09 17:10:40.782
[NOTICE] Bootstrapped 75% (enough_dirinfo): Loaded enough directory info to build circuits
2025-05-09 17:10:41.524
[NOTICE] Bootstrapped 90% (ap_handshake_done): Handshake finished with a relay to build circuits
2025-05-09 17:10:41.524
[NOTICE] Bootstrapped 95% (circuit_create): Establishing a Tor circuit
2025-05-09 17:10:41.657
[NOTICE] Bootstrapped 100% (done): Done
1 Like

Hi @sourf, welcome to the forum.

I can confirm this unexpected behavior on my own system (Linux Mint Debian Edition 6, with manual install of TB 14.5.1) logs attached.
torlog.txt (3.2 KB)

The tab appears and disappears quickly, so well done for noticing it. I repeated the same steps with a fresh install of TB 14.5 and did not observe this behavior, so it looks like it was introduced with the latest patch release.

Update: bug now reported here

2 Likes

Hi, I have observed this behavior even in TB 14.5, actually, I tried a bunch of versions and here are my findings:

unaffected
12.0
13.0
13.0.9
13.0.14
13.0.15
13.5a8 - last unaffected version

affected
13.5a9 - earliest affected version
13.0.16
13.5
13.5.2
14.0.1
14.5
14.5.1
14.5a1
14.5a6

2 Likes