Selenium Webdriver: Browser is under remote control (Firefox) & (chrome is automated by a software)

[Reda Y]

Hello,

I just noticed the that there is a little bot that appears in the address bar that says: browser is under remote control (Firefox) on Firefox (chrome is automated by a software)

I was wondering what is this exactly (I got the bot thing) I mean by that:

1. Is that just a client site indicator?
2. Is that something that that the actual website detects
3. Would it go away when you define a user agent
4. Is there a way to remove it / Control it

Thanks a lot!!

[Jim Evans]

Both Mozilla and Google have (wisely, in my opinion) both decided to create a visual indicator to show a user who might be observing the browser that it’s being automated via WebDriver. Since social engineering could be used to have a user download and launch the driver executable (chrome driver or geckodriver), this at least will let the user know how and why their browser is being manipulated. There might be ways to turn it off, but I will have no part in discovering or disseminating those techniques, as I believe the end user should have a right to know what’s happening on their machine.

[Reda Y]

I am the end user... :) Now there were few questions on there as well.

[Dieter Da]

To disable this 'banner' in Chrome, you can use ChromeOptions.addArguments("--disable-infobars"). It may hide some other infobars as well, but for my usage it is nothing that may not be hidden.