Prevent anonymous users from viewing page history

[Stumper Dumpel]

Hi!
After updating Confluence to version 9.2.6, we encountered a problem where we couldn't view the page history.
Previously it was configured according to the instructions 'How do I prevent anonymous users from using page history?' and now both the authorized and anonymous user receives an error message.

authorized user:

anonymous user:

How to fix this problem?
Thanks!

[Patricia Modispacher _K15t_]

Hi @Stumper Dumpel 

I think what’s happening is that the old workaround you used to block anonymous users is now catching everyone after the upgrade. Back in earlier versions, Confluence wasn’t too strict, so your filter/config only really affected anonymous traffic. But in 9.2.6, Atlassian tightened how permissions and page history checks work.

That means your custom rule doesn’t distinguish between anonymous and logged-in users anymore, it just blocks all requests to the page history URL. So now even authenticated users are getting denied.

The quickest way to test this: remove or disable the old filter you set up, restart Confluence, and see if page history works again for logged-in users. If it does, then the issue is definitely the old restriction setup.

[Stumper Dumpel]

Hi, @Patricia Modispacher _K15t_ !
With the standard file viewpreviousversions.vm, everyone has access (authorized and anonymous users), but we need to prevent anonymous users from viewing the page history.

[Anwesha Pan (TCS)]

Hi @Stumper Dumpel 👋

To prevent anonymous users from viewing page history after updating Confluence to version 9.2.6, you must disable anonymous access globally, as there is no UI option to hide page history specifically for anonymous users, and you will need to reapply the code change to the viewpreviousversions.vm file if you previously used that workaround. 

You can follow the below steps : 

Reapply the Code Change (If You Had a Previous Workaround)

If you previously implemented a workaround to hide page history for anonymous users, you will need to redo this step because upgrading Confluence replaces its code. 

1. Locate the File: Navigate to your Confluence installation directory and find the file viewpreviousversions.vm within the <confluence-install>/confluence/pages/ directory.
2. Replace with the Modified Code: You will need to find the new or existing code for viewpreviousversions.vm for Confluence 9.2.6 and replace the old code with it.
3. Copy and Paste: This involves copying and pasting the new, correct code into the file.

I hope this help! 😊

Thanks,
Anwesha

[Stumper Dumpel]

Hi, @Anwesha Pan (TCS) !
After updating Confluence, we updated the file viewpreviousversions.vm according to the instructions. The problem is that these changes no longer work, now it just blocks access to the page history for everyone (authorized users and anonymous).

[Anwesha Pan (TCS)]

Thanks @Stumper Dumpel for providing additional information. I am sure you might have already gone through this knowledge base article for reference.

If that also doesn't resolve this issue, then I would advice you to reach out to Atlassian support.

Thanks,
Anwesha