Title: noreferrer gets duplicated in rel on external links wrapping an <img>/<svg> icon
>>> [!note] Migrated issue
<!-- Drupal.org comment -->
<!-- Migrated from issue #3614677. -->
Reported by: [pbabin](https://www.drupal.org/user/3603799)
Related to !68
>>>
<h3 id="summary-problem-motivation">Problem/Motivation</h3>
<p>Drupal.extlink.attach() in js/extlink.js adds nofollow, noopener, and noreferrer to external links in three separate blocks. Two of them check the existing rel value before appending:</p>
<p> - noopener block: checks val.indexOf('noopener') first.<br>
- nofollow block: checks val.indexOf(target) === -1 first. </p>
<p>The noreferrer block does not perform this check in either 2.x or 3.x — it unconditionally runs:</p>
<p> <code>externalLinks[i].setAttribute('rel', `${val} noreferrer`); </code> </p>
<p>Normally this goes unnoticed because extlink marks processed links with a data-extlink attribute and only scans a:not([data-extlink]) on each attach. But Drupal.extlink.applyClassAndSpan(), which sets that marker, explicitly excludes any link containing an <code><img></code> or <code><svg></code> when extlink_img_class is disabled (the default): </p>
<p> <code>linksToProcess = links.filter((link) => link.querySelector('img, svg') === null);</code> </p>
<p>So a link wrapping an inline SVG/IMG icon (e.g. a social-share icon) never gets data-extlink, and is reprocessed on every subsequent Drupal.attachBehaviors() call over that DOM region — e.g. during Big Pipe placeholder replacement (which only occurs for authenticated/uncacheable sessions), AJAX commands, etc. On each pass, nofollow/noopener correctly no-op, but noreferrer piles on again, producing e.g.: </p>
<p> <code>rel="noopener nofollow noreferrer noreferrer"</code></p>
<h4 id="summary-steps-reproduce">Steps to reproduce</h4>
<ol>
<li>Create an external link that wraps an inline <code><svg></code> (or <code><img></code>) icon, e.g. a social-share link with an inlined icon. </li>
<li> Leave Extlink's "Apply changes to the link classes on img/svg links" (extlink_img_class) disabled (default), with nofollow/noopener/noreferrer all enabled. </li>
<li>Load the page as an authenticated user with Big Pipe active (or otherwise trigger a second Drupal.attachBehaviors() pass over that region — e.g. an AJAX response). </li>
<li>Inspect the link's rendered rel — noreferrer appears more than once; nofollow/noopener appear only once.</li>
</ol>
<h3 id="summary-proposed-resolution">Proposed resolution</h3>
<p> Give the noreferrer block the same existing-value guard already used by nofollow: </p>
<pre> <br> if (drupalSettings.data.extlink.extNoreferrer) { <br> externalLinks.forEach((link, i) => { <br> if (drupalSettings.data.extlink.extExcludeNoreferrer && extExcludeNoreferrer.test(link.getAttribute('href'))) { <br> return; <br> } <br> <br> const val = link.getAttribute('rel'); <br> if (val === null || typeof val === 'undefined') { <br> externalLinks[i].setAttribute('rel', 'noreferrer'); <br> return; <br> } <br> if (val.indexOf('noreferrer') === -1) { <br> externalLinks[i].setAttribute('rel', `${val} noreferrer`); <br> } <br> }); <br> } </pre><h3 id="additional-notes">Additional Notes</h3>
<p>The deeper issue is that img/svg-wrapped links are always treated as "unprocessed" across repeated attach cycles, since they're excluded from the data-extlink marker. The guard above fixes the visible symptom; longer-term it may be worth switching from the custom data-extlink marker to Drupal core's once() utility so every behavior here is naturally idempotent.</p>
<p>I worked with @chazchumley to identify this issue in one of our codebases. The additional noreferrer was identified during testing of theme changes. We utilized Claude Sonnet 5 to pinpoint the issue. And confirmed it is present in both the 2x and 3x branches. Claude was also used for the writeup. Chaz called out that this most likely goes unnoticed because he only came across it when he clicked cancel on the notice and was presented with a second notice. We opted not to create a patch as the user impact is significantly low but felt it was noteworthy enough to provide a bug-report for you all to do with as you please. Also happy to create and validate a MR on on our codebase if this is worthy enough to pickup.</p>
issue
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Project: project/extlink
Instance: https://git.drupalcode.org
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