How to capture web sessions using browser Developer Tools for troubleshooting purposes in all RSA products

[#1]

Article Number

000036538

Applies To

RSA Product Set: All RSA Products
Platform: Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Internet Explorer 11, Google Chrome

Issue

In order to troubleshoot an issue when using RSA products in a web browser session, RSA Support may ask you to capture a trace of the HTTP or HTTPS web session.

One means of doing that, normally recommended by RSA Customer Support, is to capture web sessions using Fiddler.  That method has the advantage that it will capture HTTP and HTTPS traffic in all tabs of the browser.  In order to be able to do that, however, Fiddler inserts itself as a proxy to the session, with its own digital certificate.  In some circumstances having Fiddler as a proxy can change session behavior or prevent you from accessing the web server. 

Occasionally, this means that Fiddler is not a suitable choice to capture web sessions for troubleshooting. 

Another method to capture web sessions is to use the built-in HTTP/HTTPS tracing tool in the web browser itself.  That will capture all HTTP and HTTPS traffic as Fiddler does, however, it does have the limitation that it will only trace traffic in the current browser tab, so it is not suitable for situations where there is a need to capture the browser opening a web session in another tab.

Resolution

Preliminary Step - All Browsers

Unless you have been informed by RSA Customer Support to do otherwise, always clear cookies in your web browser before testing.

The remaining steps to capture web sessions are given below for the most common web browsers.  Versions are the latest at the time of writing.  If you need help with a different web browser, contact RSA Customer Support.

Mozilla Firefox

Version 61

1. Open the Firefox browser and go to the tab where you intend to reproduce the issue you need to capture.
2. Press the F12 key on your keyboard.  A Developer Tools window will open within the browser tab.
3. Click on the Network tab in the Developer Tools window. 
   • Make sure the checkbox for Persist Logs is selected.
   • Make sure the checkbox for Disable cache is selected.
      
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4. Reproduce the issue in the main window of the browser tab you have open.  You will see records and graphs scrolling in the Developer Tools window.
5. When you have reproduced the issue, right click any of the records in the Developer Tools window and select Save All As HAR.
    
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6. Follow the prompts to Save File.   The saved HAR file will have a name like Archive<date-and-time>.har and will be saved to your Firefox Downloads folder.

 

Google Chrome

Version 67

1. Open the Chrome browser and go to the tab where you intend to reproduce the issue you need to capture.
2. Press the F12 key on your keyboard.  A Developer Tools window will open within the browser tab.
3. Click on the Network tab in the Developer Tools window. 
   • Make sure the checkbox for Persist Logs is selected.
   • Make sure the checkbox for Disable cache is selected.
      
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4. Reproduce the issue in the main window of the browser tab you have open.  You will see records and graphs scrolling in the Developer Tools window.
5. When you have reproduced the issue, right-click any of the records in the Developer Tools window and select Save as HAR with content.
    
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6. Follow the Save As prompt to save the HAR file to a suitable location. The saved file will have a name like <domain-name>.har and will be saved to the folder location you specify in the Save As dialogue.

 

Microsoft Internet Explorer

Version 11

1. Open the Internet Explorer browser and go to the tab where you intend to reproduce the issue you need to capture.
2. Press the F12 key on your keyboard.  A Developer Tools window will open within the browser tab.
3. Click on the Network tab in the Developer Tools window.   
   • Make sure the icon for Always refresh from server is selected.
   • Make sure the icon for Clear entries on navigate is NOT selected (it is selected by default). 
   • Make sure the Content Type drop-down box has All selected.
      
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4. Reproduce the issue in the main window of the browser tab you have open.  You will see records and graphs scrolling in the Developer Tools window.
5. When you have reproduced the issue, click the disk icon for Export as HAR (Ctrl-S)  in the Developer Tools window.
    
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6. Follow the Save As prompt to save the HAR file to a suitable location.   Choose a file name that ends in .har.  The file will be saved to the folder location you specify in the Save As dialogue.

When you have finished testing, you should upload the saved HAR files to RSA Customer Support for analysis.

Notes

• All data displayed and entered while the network capture is active will be saved to the HAR file, including sensitive data such as names and passwords.  Even data that was encrypted over an HTTPS session will be saved in the clear in the HAR file.   Any passwords used during the capture should be changed after the test.  Discuss any security or privacy concerns with your company's IT security team and RSA Customer Support.
• HAR is an acronym for HTTP Archive.
• HAR file data can be viewed in any 3rd party online HTTP Archive viewer or using a compatible 3rd party tool such as Telerik Fiddler.

 
If you need to capture a web session specifically for an RSA Link issue you are experiencing, please refer to one of the articles listed below.

• How to collect a network trace for RSA Link issues in Google Chrome
• How to create a network trace for RSA Link issues in Mozilla Firefox
• How to collect a network trace for RSA Link issues in Microsoft Internet Explorer