Malformed URLs for i.redd.it posts when using the reddit.com -> old.reddit.com website redirect

[F-Smith]

Description:

I recently noticed that when clicking on images in subreddits that are hosted on the i.redd.it domain, Brave loads up a random post on reddit.com/r/funny instead of the image I clicked on...

Upon closer inspection, I see that the post URL gets appended to this URL https://old.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/media/nice_hat/ as a query string.

For example, if you click on a post https://i.redd.it/05cnhtc5yo331.jpg it will incorrectly form the URL as: https://old.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/media/nice_hat/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2F05cnhtc5yo331.jpg

Steps to Reproduce

1. Open the Brave iOS browser
2. Enable the reddit.com -> old.reddit.com redirect (Settings -> Website Redirect)
3. Go to a subreddit, e.g. https://old.reddit.com/r/AccidentalRenaissance/
4. Select a post where after the post title, it says (i.redd.it)
5. Click on either the image thumbnail or the post title.
6. Observe how you end up on an entirely different URL of /r/funny/comments/media/nice_hat

Expected result:

• I should see the image of the post I've clicked on.

Reproduces how often:

Easily reproduced whenever I click on a post with the (i.redd.it) domain after the post title

Brave Version:

Version v1.56 (23.8.4.21)

• Can you reproduce this issue with the current build from AppStore? Yes

Device details:

iOS 16.5.1

Website problems only:

• did you check with Brave Shields down? Yes, issue persists
• did you check in Safari/Firefox (WkWebView-based browsers)? Yes, issue doesn't exist

Additional Information

• Only seems to apply to image assets hosted on i.redd.it
• Doesn't affect video assets hosted on v.redd.it
• If you want to workaround this bug and still get to the post URL, you need to click on the number of comments next to the post instead of the post title or thumbnail.

[kylehickinson]

Looks like Reddit changed the way they load i.redd.it links… we'll have to see if there's a way to get around this without additional replacement logic

For investigation sake:

• i.redd.it/{id} redirects to
• reddit.com/media?url={iredditurl} which we rewrite as
• old.reddit.com/media?url={iredditurl}

Unfortunately the final destination is not handled as a media lookup and instead is handled as a legacy post lookup, it just so happens that this "nice hat" post has a post ID of media…

[hffvld]

Verified on iPhone 14 using version(s):

Device/OS: iPhone 14 [iOS 16.6]
Brave build: 1.57 (23.8.18.20)
BraveCore: 1.57.47 (116.0.5845.96)

---

Upgraded profile - PASS

STEPS:
Follow the steps from #7873 (comment)

ACTUAL RESULTS:

• Verified that the proper picture is opened when reddit.com > old.reddit.com redirect is enabled

---

Reddit_.upgrade.mov

Fresh install - PASS

STEPS:
Follow the steps from #7873 (comment)

ACTUAL RESULTS:

• Verified that the proper picture is opened when reddit.com > old.reddit.com redirect is enabled

---

Reddit_fresh.mov