198925 - mailnews repeatedly asks for master password

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 155739

(MailNews Core :: Security, defect)

Description

[Gábor Ziegler]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; hu-HU; rv:1.3; MultiZilla v1.4.0.2) Gecko/20030312
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; hu-HU; rv:1.3; MultiZilla v1.4.0.2) Gecko/20030312

I store the password to my IMAP accounts in the password managaer subsystem.
I have set up my profile somewhen around v.1.0, that it should ask for the
master password after 5 minutes of inactivity.

Since Mozilla 1.3 the Mailnews repeatedly ask for the master password (for
checking new mails on my remote IMAP/POP3 accunts) regardless of activity, or
inactivity. It is annoying. 

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
(Note I use a localized Mozilla, the below menu points may be not perfectly
translated back
1. Setup the master (Edit -> Preferences -> Security and Privacy -> Master
password -> Expiry: 5 minutes
2. Store you password to an (IMAP) mail account
3. Open the INBOX ofd that account, Mailnews will ask for masterpassword to
retreive account password
4. Perform some continous activity for more than 5 minuts in mailnews, to see
that Mailnews still expires your master password after each 5 minutes

Actual Results:  
MAilnews keeps bugging me for the master password every five minutes

Expected Results:  
Should not ask for master password, if last activity (i.e. keyboard or mouse
event while Mailnews window has the focus) happened earlier than the setting for
master password expiry

Actually, this behavior seems to exist since the v.1.3alpha, this was one of the
key reasons of mine reverting back to v.1.2.1.
I am sorry not to submit the bug report at that time.

Comment 1

[u63580]

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.3b; MultiZilla v1.1.34 (d))
Gecko/20030312

I've had a go at reproducing what you say happens in 1.3.

Mozilla isn't requesting my master password, even if I just leave it running and
don't do anything in MailNews.  That's the way it always seems to have worked
for me.

Joseph Wright

Comment 2

[Gábor Ziegler]

Yeah, up to 1.2.1 it does not happened with me either.

Comment 3

[R.K.Aa.]

the wording in the english version is:

"If it has not been used for ... minutes or longer"
Which means that if you check that option you ask Mozilla to re-prompt for the
master password every 5th minute, for instance.

Bug 155739 seens to be an RFE for what you want: That the master password be
requested after nnn minutes of IDLE time (without activity, in other words.)

Resolving as dup.

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 155739 ***

Comment 4

[Gábor Ziegler]

I think [e-mail] there is a misunderstunding of the problem.

If the original English wording is 
"If it has not been used for ... minutes or longer"
then it is either a bug in the PSM, or in the GUI. 

Since (I forgot to put in the detail, I admit) Mozilla has been instructed by me
to check incoming mails every 2 minutes, it clearly *uses* the master password
every 2 minutes, to retrieve the account's IMAP password!

So it *must not* consider the master password as expired!!!

I think this is indeed a bug, and not an RFE, like bug #155739

Shall I reopen this bug, or change #155739 from RFE to a bug?

Comment 5

[Mitchell Stoltz (not reading bugmail)]

If you do reopen, please reassign to the PSM product.