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docs: add deprecation note for 'back' redirect in res-redirect.md and res-location.md v4 #1835

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Merged
carlosstenzel merged 2 commits into from
Mar 21, 2025
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docs: add deprecation note for 'back' redirect in res-redirect.md and res-location.md v4 #1835

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1be7fbc
docs: add deprecation note for 'back' redirect in res-redirect.md
bjohansebas Mar 15, 2025
7c7bc45
docs: remove special meaning of 'back' value in res-location.md
bjohansebas Mar 15, 2025
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2 changes: 2 additions & 0 deletions _includes/api/en/4x/res-location.md
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Expand Up @@ -8,6 +8,8 @@ res.location('http://example.com')
res.location('back')
```

{% include admonitions/note.html content="`'back'` was deprecated in 4.21.0, use `req.get('Referrer') || '/'` as an argument instead." %}

A `path` value of "back" has a special meaning, it refers to the URL specified in the `Referer` header of the request. If the `Referer` header was not specified, it refers to "/".

See also [Security best practices: Prevent open redirect
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2 changes: 2 additions & 0 deletions _includes/api/en/4x/res-redirect.md
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Expand Up @@ -52,5 +52,7 @@ defaulting to `/` when the referer is missing.
res.redirect('back')
```

{% include admonitions/note.html content="`back` redirect was deprecated in 4.21.0, use `req.get('Referrer') || '/'` as an argument instead." %}

See also [Security best practices: Prevent open redirect
vulnerabilities](http://expressjs.com/en/advanced/best-practice-security.html#prevent-open-redirects).
6 changes: 0 additions & 6 deletions _includes/api/en/5x/res-location.md
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Expand Up @@ -5,14 +5,8 @@ Sets the response `Location` HTTP header to the specified `path` parameter.
```js
res.location('/foo/bar')
res.location('http://example.com')
res.location('back')
```

A `path` value of "back" has a special meaning, it refers to the URL specified in the `Referer` header of the request. If the `Referer` header was not specified, it refers to "/".

See also [Security best practices: Prevent open redirect
vulnerabilities](http://expressjs.com/en/advanced/best-practice-security.html#prevent-open-redirects).

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@krzysdz krzysdz Apr 24, 2025

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Is there a reason why this note was removed here?

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@bjohansebas bjohansebas Apr 26, 2025

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we can keep it—there's no reason to remove it. Also, we still need to add the reference to the new recommended option (see https://github.com/expressjs/expressjs.com/pull/1835/files#r1997311521).

<div class='doc-box doc-warn' markdown="1">
After encoding the URL, if not encoded already, Express passes the specified URL to the browser in the `Location` header,
without any validation.
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7 changes: 0 additions & 7 deletions _includes/api/en/5x/res-redirect.md
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Expand Up @@ -45,12 +45,5 @@ Path-relative redirects are also possible. If you were on
res.redirect('..')
```

A `back` redirection redirects the request back to the [referer](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTP_referer),
defaulting to `/` when the referer is missing.

```js
res.redirect('back')
```

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@bjohansebas bjohansebas Mar 15, 2025

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I'm not sure about removing this, maybe the recommended option should be mentioned req.get('Referrer') || '/'

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@ShubhamOulkar ShubhamOulkar Mar 16, 2025

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Similar to 5x migration guide

See also [Security best practices: Prevent open redirect
vulnerabilities](http://expressjs.com/en/advanced/best-practice-security.html#prevent-open-redirects).