SEB 3.10 Windows - Cannot Copy+Paste iframe Content from Trinket

[glhatter]

Important

• Please always consult the documentation first before creating a bug report: https://safeexambrowser.org/windows/win_usermanual_en.html.
• Please always attach the log file(s) of the affected session(s)! They can be found under %LocalAppData%\SafeExamBrowser\Logs.

Describe the Bug
Trinket is a browser-based coding environment that can be embedded as an iframe within Moodle quizzes.

When a Moodle quiz is run in Safe Exam Browser (SEB), users on Windows (SEB 3.10) cannot copy text from an embedded Trinket iFrame and paste it into the quiz's essay response field.

This issue is not reproducible on macOS (SEB 3.6), where copying and pasting from the iFrame works as expected.

Steps to Reproduce
Steps to reproduce the behavior:

To reproduce in a new Moodle quiz:

1. Create an SEB config file, setting "Clipboard Policy - SEB Only" to true.
2. In Moodle, create a new quiz with one description-type question and one essay-type question.
3. Go to trinket.io and create a new Trinket.
4. Use the "Share" option to copy the trinket's embed code.
5. Navigate back to Moodle to edit the description question, and paste the embed code into the question text's HTML editor.
6. Save the Moodle quiz.
7. Log into Moodle as a student and launch the quiz, which will start SEB.
8. Once the quiz loads, navigate to the question and type text (e.g., print("hello, world!")) into the embedded Trinket editor.
9. Attempt to copy the text from the Trinket iframe (Ctrl+C) and paste it (Ctrl+V) into the Moodle essay answer field. The paste action fails.

To observe the behavior in an existing quiz:

1. Create a "Brickyard" guest account on NC State Moodle Projects

• Select the "Create New Account" button.
• Enter the desired email address that should be associated with the Brickyard account.
• Follow the instructions provided to verify the email address and finalize the Brickyard account.

2. Self-enroll in this sample course course: SEB Testing - iframe Copy + Paste Issue
3. Sign in with your new Brickyard account and launch the “Mock Quiz” (this will launch SEB on your device).
4. Once the quiz loads, navigate to the description question containing the Trinket iframe.
5. Enter text (e.g., print("hello, world!")) into the embedded Trinket editor.
6. Attempt to copy the line of code (Ctrl+C) from the Trinket iframe and paste it (Ctrl+V) into the Moodle essay answer field. The paste action fails.

Expected Behavior
When the "Clipboard Policy - SEB Only" is enabled, Windows users should be able to copy text from an embedded iframe inside of the quiz and paste it into a response field within the same quiz.

Version Information

• OS: Windows 11 (24H2, Build 26100.6584)
• SEB Version: 3.10.0x64
• Moodle Version: 4.5.6+ (Build: 20250822)

Additional Context
This behavior has not yet been tested in embedded iframes other than Trinket.

Log Files
2025-10-22_10h11m34s_Client.log

[dbuechel]

Thanks for the exemplary issue report. We'll try to have a look at it once time permits, but are unfortunately currently completely booked out (at the very least for the current sprint). Did you already contact the developer of Trinket to check whether it could be an issue on their side?

We try our best to react and ensure functionality with third-party web applications, but we have unfortunately by far not enough resources to be able to test, debug and fix all commonly used web applications and/or plugins.

[glhatter]

Hi, Damian:

We have not yet contacted Trinket Support to report this issue, but we can make that one of our to-do items while we await further input from your team.

The fact that there are differing behaviors between Mac and Windows devices suggests that there could be a connection with some of the other clipboard limitations that were present in SEB for Windows before the 3.10 update. I am curious about whether this issue can be replicated in other iframe content, and my team can try to test this in the interim.

Thank you!

-Grace

[dbuechel]

Excellent, yes that would be of great help. And yes indeed, unfortunately the custom clipboard implementation is rather complex and has proven to be a bit error-prone. But if there is an issue on our end and a clear way to reproduce it, then we'll of course at the very least attempt to fix it.

[glhatter]

Hi, Damian:

As an update, we were able to test a different kind of iFrame (embedded Google Doc), and we confirmed that copying+pasting from the iFrame into a Moodle Quiz response field works as expected in SEB for Windows and Mac.

We also verified that copying and pasting from a Trinket iFrame into a Moodle Quiz response field works as expected in multiple major browsers (Chrome, Safari, Firefox), and across both Mac and Windows devices. As a result, the issue with copying + pasting from Trinket appears to be limited to SEB for Windows.

Do you have a general timeline on when your next sprint will begin? We'll be sure to reach out to Trinket in the interim, but as these clipboard issues appear to be limited to SEB, we'd like to ensure that we are communicating a realistic timeframe to the impacted instructor.

Thanks again!

[dbuechel]

Our next sprint starts in a week, but as stated, please reach out to the developers of the integration first and ideally let us know if and what exactly the issue is, so that we can fix it. We will unfortunately not at all have the time to ourselves debug and investigate issues with third-party integrations of Moodle in the near future.

[glhatter]

Thank you for confirming. We just reached out to the Trinket team, and we will follow up with any details they are able to provide.

[Fitzis]

Hi everyone,
I can confirm this exact behavior. I'm running into a similar issue and it seems directly related to how SEB 3.10 handles clipboard permissions for JavaScript-based editors.

My Setup

• LMS: Moodle
• Plugin: CodeRunner (a Moodle question type plugin that lets students submit code which is then graded automatically).
• Editor: Ace Editor (the default JavaScript-based code editor that CodeRunner embeds in the quiz page).

The Problem

When my SEB Clipboard Policy is set to "SEB Only", standard copy-paste (Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V) within the Ace Editor text area completely fails.

However, I've confirmed two things:

1. If I set the SEB Clipboard Policy to "Allow", copy-paste in Ace works fine.
2. If I configure the CodeRunner question to use its "plain text" editor instead of Ace, copy-paste works fine even with the "SEB Only" policy.

So I have the issue specifically with SEB's "SEB Only" policy interacting with the Ace Editor's clipboard access.
I'm not entirely positive that this is indeed the same problem as the topic, but it seems related.

[dbuechel]

@Fitzis Please verify first with the developers of the mentioned editor that it is indeed an issue on our end. We simply cannot ourselves ensure compatibility and testing with the myriad of third-party LMS and/or plugins.

[github-actions]

This issue is stale because it has been open for 28 days with no activity. It will soon be closed automatically if there are no updates.

[glhatter]

Unfortunately, no word from the Trinket developers. Unless there is any additional news from the SEB side, we can plan to explore alternative solutions with our instructor. Thanks again.

[dbuechel]

From our side, there are unfortunately no new developments with respect to this here issue.