[Bug] Links in hover tooltips show wrong link target on account of empty href attribute

Reproducible in vscode.dev or in VS Code Desktop?

• Not reproducible in vscode.dev or VS Code Desktop

Reproducible in the monaco editor playground?

• Not reproducible in the monaco editor playground

Monaco Editor Playground Link

https://microsoft.github.io/monaco-editor/playground.html?source=v0.55.1#XQAAAAK1BAAAAAAAAABBqQkHQ5NjdMjwa-jY7SIQ9S7DNlzs5W-mwj0fe1ZCDRFc9ws9XQE0SJE1jc2VKxhaLFIw9vEWSxW3yscw7CRL3dbD0yTm9PBkbpAuszLxat513xdup2C2_l1CzjuFyfDT_1lBACVOelNXBZUA1EgQaHyac5LTQwMFzf8GRW99bOIjA2mP9LZTJKWZv9htrlb6JLA-rim0ozyblFbPR16qNJ8fv9N2RdbbCludP_pMVXEuAp9DXjIGO_Z_Nplfk6Dij6nS5wsVArXHYNBjntx20zPjhjMGx7f3fW1bTfiX-_d4kSwcpjjpn__GJtxhLmya8rfmMslFnvTHCf13J4gE3ekNfiWi7OwCeiyC0VLe7sF3uaSyYyTZUzR9yCzdGo0J5EhSuEl3owGJahlyXlQeAXUoz-r7o8I9i4YEZteOtuUB4OEJrnzMaC2nuxRRjkk_x92fNdC5xEo_Sw0HGmhIoW6-0zdY3g21B9peETa2PVaDvm3oklVMkYkqTje_vYWtsly3OEOO0AiMI1NsTLYyPqgbHG5sBQXYqIdkQeLu4QtyQphVTkp49st0-mz-15Q5gVblqi8tIVYNq8i111ps7Cf3nYd95uSksyG8lPWz9egAczXDCMZ4dxQwkxmS8BWCRONsjMIloe-nYREQ3MXh4_MHaDuBnCHfqOdR1hTP0XTrHOM2-UljJxaNO8OYMhGX6CvUr_LLpOXKHcAzR0jYL-QeCXM6X8UE3xTcSbVr7VNJji7u8sHoJH6MSXmAmXdmh8pd_iuwUYxvQkSuTXGRjqKG-UC3Tcx9YH5u-3IXuF3WTdd8s6onS8X_ThVdijR8_7luIOg

Monaco Editor Playground Code

monaco.languages.register({ id: "mySpecialLanguage" });

monaco.languages.registerHoverProvider("mySpecialLanguage", {
	provideHover: function (model, position) {
		return xhr("./playground.html").then(function (res) {
			return {
				range: new monaco.Range(
					1,
					1,
					model.getLineCount(),
					model.getLineMaxColumn(model.getLineCount())
				),
				contents: [
					{ value: "[link](https://google.com)" },
					// ^ only change from the default hover example 
				],
			};
		});
	},
});

monaco.editor.create(document.getElementById("container"), {
	value: "\n\nHover over this text",
	language: "mySpecialLanguage",
});

function xhr(url) {
	var req = null;
	return new Promise(function (c, e) {
		req = new XMLHttpRequest();
		req.onreadystatechange = function () {
			if (req._canceled) {
				return;
			}

			if (req.readyState === 4) {
				if (
					(req.status >= 200 && req.status < 300) ||
					req.status === 1223
				) {
					c(req);
				} else {
					e(req);
				}
				req.onreadystatechange = function () {};
			}
		};

		req.open("GET", url, true);
		req.responseType = "";

		req.send(null);
	}).catch(function () {
		req._canceled = true;
		req.abort();
	});
}

Reproduction Steps

1. Hover over any of the text in the preview section
2. Hover over the "link" text in the opened tooltip

Actual (Problematic) Behavior

• the URL displayed in the desktop browser UI in the bottom left is always the window.location.href on account of the "link" link having href="" (the intended URL is shown via title attribute)
• Some native browser link interactions like "Right click to open in a new tab" are broken because the href attribute isn't appropriately set to the link target (note, that the playground somehow prevents right clicking on the link, but in a real example, right clicking works)
• Activating the link via click works, presumably there's some JavaScript using the value of the data-href attribute which does hold the correct link target

Expected Behavior

• the URL displayed in the desktop browser UI is exactly the link target
• All native browser link interactions are available
• Activating the link via click works

Additional Context

It's not clear why this was done but it should be a straightforward fix.

Start with the Monaco Editor Playground reproduction and inspect the hover tooltip link generated from the Markdown contents. Compare its href with the data-href and title values, then verify that the actual link target appears in the browser status bar and that native link actions work.