Browser autocorrect replaces contents of form fields with garbage

[geldot]

The Safari browser has intrusive autocomplete enabled by default, while Chromium browsers also have spellcheck enabled for form fields unless you opt out.

In Safari in particular, it's almost impossible to type in package names as they get replaced with English dictionary words. This issue exists to some extent in Chrome too, where values like SSH key signatures are underscored as spelling mistakes.

This results in misconfigurations, often without the user noticing.

The solution is to add the spellcheck="false" attribute to the root DOM element. This disables both autocorrect and spelling underlines in WebKit-based and Chromium-based browsers. (Testing suggests there's no need to do it on a per-field basis as it bubbles down the DOM). (It also prevents what the user types from transmission to cloud spellchecking services, which is sometimes cited as a security issue.)

Optionally, to preserve the functionality where it makes sense, like Optional, free-form notes about this device under General Settings, a new prose datatype or flag could be introduced to selectively re-enable spellchecking by opting in to the spellcheck attribute selectively.

[efahl]

Searching around, it appears that several packages are doing this on a field-by-field basis already (I see a dozen uses in @dibdot's adblock and banip packages), so adding it in globally sure seems like a good idea to me.

I can't think of anywhere else (other than what you mention above) in LuCI right now that you'd want spellcheck/autocorrect on user input, possibly if there were something like a field for specifying DHCP TXT field values you'd want it, but then like you say, enable it specifically on that field...