[Windows 26.825.6671.0] Chrome control can blue-border every display and lock local input until Escape

[pueblokc]

Summary

On Windows 11 with multiple monitors, Codex Chrome control caused every display to show a blue border and normal local input appeared locked until I pressed Escape. Escape restored local control, but the browser automation continued and later completed without reporting a failure.

This happened on 2026-09-01 at approximately 02:39 MDT, immediately after a Codex task acquired the existing signed-in Chrome control surface and began tab enumeration plus DOM/Playwright actions.

Environment

• Windows 11 Pro x64, build 26200
• Multi-monitor desktop
• OpenAI Codex Store package 26.825.6671.0 (package status OK)
• ChatGPT Chrome extension 1.26.827.12125, Manifest V3
• Public extension ID hehggadaopoacecdllhhajmbjkdcmajg

Steps and observed sequence

1. A Codex task explicitly acquired Chrome control.
2. The task enumerated tabs, opened a new test tab, and used DOM/Playwright navigation and clicks.
3. Every attached display showed a blue border.
4. Normal local input appeared unavailable.
5. I pressed Escape once; local control returned immediately.
6. The Chrome automation continued after Escape and completed later operations.

The task recorded 28 Chrome-control call/completion events from 02:39:18.931 through 02:47:41.516 MDT: 28 completed, 0 failed.

Expected behavior

• Tab-level browser control should not place every display inside a capture boundary or deny normal interaction with the rest of Windows.
• Escape should cause a deterministic and visible control-state transition: cancel, pause, release, or hand back control.
• The desktop app, extension, and automation log should agree on whether control remains active after Escape.

Negative evidence

• No Windows Application Event 1000, 1002, or 1026 during the incident window.
• The System log contained zero events from 02:35:00 through 02:42:59 MDT: no display reset, Kernel-Power, DWM, shell, or resource-exhaustion event.
• No matching DxgKrnl, DXGI, DDisplay, GraphicsCapture, Shell-Core, RDP graphics, or power-diagnostic event.
• Both discovered Codex Crashpad report directories contained zero files.
• About 18 GiB of physical memory remained free in the post-incident sample.
• A bounded scan found no full Windows Computer Use invocation and no built-in-browser invocation in the incident task; the task explicitly selected Chrome.

Assessment

Root cause is not confirmed. The evidence is most consistent with a capture/input-grab lifecycle defect at the Codex desktop / ChatGPT Chrome-extension control boundary. The browser-control lane stayed logically healthy while a desktop-wide visual/input state became active. Escape appears to have released local input/capture state without cancelling the underlying automation.

This is distinct from the older bundled-Chromium chrome.dll crash signature: the current build is newer, no process crash was recorded, and no fresh dump was created.

Engineering request

Please correlate the desktop app, Chrome extension, browser-control runtime, and app-server for 2026-09-01 02:39:18-02:47:42 MDT, especially:

1. acquire, overlay/capture activation, input-hook activation, Escape receipt, release, pause/cancel, and completion events;
2. correlation IDs joining the desktop UI, extension, CDP/Playwright bridge, and app-server;
3. any Windows.Graphics.Capture, Desktop Duplication, or other capture call and its requested target;
4. input-routing state before and after Escape;
5. multi-monitor overlay ownership, monitor enumeration, DPI/scaling, focus, and z-order;
6. the intended cancellation semantics for Escape.

I did not intentionally reproduce the problem because it could deny local input again and expose signed-in browser content. A complete sanitized PDF and ZIP evidence package is prepared for the existing private OpenAI Support case; the new addendum package has not yet been attached because the Help Center browser-control safety check failed closed before transmission. No browser history, URLs, page content, screenshots, cookies, tokens, profile data, raw transcripts, or customer data are included publicly.