Brave crashes when closing a private tab after opening shields on the private tab

[Tonev]

Description

Opening the Brave Shields panel via the icon in the address bar while in a private tab leads to an immediate crash upon closing the private tab.

• The crash will happen regardless of the opened website, it can be any website.
• There is nothing at brave://crashes, neither any message appears before Brave crashes.

Steps to reproduce

1. Open Brave.
2. Open a private tab from the 3 dots menu.
3. Open a random website.
4. Click on the Brave Shields icon in the address bar to open the Brave Shields panel.
5. Click on the Brave Shields icon in the address bar to close the opened Brave Shields panel.
6. Click on the opened tabs menu and close the opened private tab.

Actual result

Brave closes immediately without any message. There is nothing at brave://crashes.

Expected result

No crash.

Issue reproduces how often

Easily reproduced.

Version/Channel Information:

• Can you reproduce this issue with the current Play Store version? Yes
• Can you reproduce this issue with the current Play Store Beta version? Yes
• Can you reproduce this issue with the current Play Store Nightly version? Yes

Device details

• Install type (ARM, x86):
• Device type (Phone, Tablet, Phablet): Huawei Mate 10 lite
• Android version: 8

Brave version

1.28.106

Website problems only

• Does the issue resolve itself when disabling Brave Shields? N/A
• Does the issue resolve itself when disabling Brave Rewards? N/A
• Is the issue reproducible on the latest version of Chrome? N/A

Additional information

The issue was originally reported by Wiggly in Brave Community:
https://community.brave.com/t/opening-shield-settings-in-private-browsing-crashes-brave/273237

This is not a new issue as Wiggly reported the issue while using Brave 1.27.111.

[srirambv]

Cant repro it on 1.29.76 build. Can this be checked on the new release and see if it still repro's

[Tonev]

@srirambv

Since 1.29.76 is still not available to me, I downloaded Brave Beta and Brave Nightly. Unfortunately, reproduced the issue in both.

Brave - Beta 1.30.57
Brave - Nightly 1.31.10

I'll update my ticket including that the issue is reproducible in Beta and Nightly.

[Tonev]

@srirambv

I just received the 1.29.76 update and tested whether the issue is present - unfortunately, it is.

Steps to reproduce:

1. Opened Brave.
2. Opened a private tab from the 3 dots menu.
3. Opened a random website.
4. Clicked on the Brave Shields icon in the address bar to open the Brave Shields panel.
5. Clicked on the Brave Shields icon in the address bar to close the opened Brave Shields panel.
6. Clicked on the opened tabs menu and closed the opened private tab.

Brave immediately froze and got minimized. I successfully re-opened the same instance by clicking on the button that shows minimized applications.

I'll ask Wiggly from Brave Community whether they're able to re-open the same Brave instance after freeze, and will provide an update after Wiggly answers me.

[Tonev]

The behavior on Wiggly's end remains the same: their browser isn't minimized after freeze -> complete crash.

Wiggly:

Yes, it still crashes my browser on 1.29.76.

https://community.brave.com/t/opening-shield-settings-in-private-browsing-crashes-brave/273237/5?u=rethanis

[srirambv]

@Tonev thanks for the details I can repro now with the steps you mentioned in #17657 (comment).

I guess I was switching back to the tabs. Had to stay on the tab tray for the app to crash.

@samartnik can we fix this and get it uplifted as this is already in release and will also repro on 1.29.77

[Tonev]

@srirambv

You are most welcome, I thank you for your attention ;)

P.S Updated STR in the description so QA can verify easier.

[bsclifton]

Thanks for the great details here @Tonev 😄👍

[srirambv]

Verification passed on Oppo Reno 5 with Android 11 with 1.29.78 x64 build

• Verified steps from issue description
• Verified no browser crash when closing private tabs