Attempts to access Tor personas via Gitlab causes CPU/RAM spike
I found links to Tor personas here: https://community.torproject.org/user-research/persona/
There are currently 5 personas listed. Their links are dip.torproject.org which in turn redirects to gitlab.torproject.org. For example:
- Link: https://dip.torproject.org/torproject/ux/research/tree/master/persona/jelani.pdf
- Redirect: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/ux/research/-/blob/master/persona/jelani.pdf
Using Tor Browser 10.0.12 with the security setting set to "Safer", I attempted to access all the personas at the same time. What happened is the links redirected to Gtilab, and Gitlab attempted to draw the PDFs. At this stage, everything froze for about one minute, and my CPU and RAM maxed out.
This is a problem for people who wish to download Tor personas. First, downloading the personas from Gtilab requires JavaScript enabled, in other words the user is forced to reduce their security setting from "Safest" to "Standard" or "Safer". Second, attempting to download the personas can cause the freeze and RAM/CPU spike that I experienced.
Right click >> "Save Link As..." doesn't work. Despite what each link implies, this downloads the HTML of the Gtilab page, not the PDF file.
The PDFs should be placed on the Tor Project website more directly and not be available through Gitlab.