706767 - Even in offline mode TB asks for password to connect to server if account settings are set to check regularly

Status: NEW

(Thunderbird :: Security, defect)

Description

[bege10]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.1; rv:8.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/8.0
Build ID: 20111104165243

Steps to reproduce:

The account settings are set to checking the account every 10 minutes.
Usually TB is online.
Sometimes (to work on add-ons and settings and test) I switch TB offline.


Actual results:

Although offline TB asks for the password to connect to the server.
Not to get annoyed by that I have to type the password after each restart.


Expected results:

Not to ask for password to connect to server if in offline-mode.

Comment 1

[bege10]

This is not a new issue, it's been in TB since I started using it years ago.

Comment 2

[:aceman]

Is this Thunderbird 8?
Also, I understand it you do not have the password stored in Thunderbird. So you have to type it at each connection. The password you type is not the master password (for the TB internal password store) but really for the server. Is this correct?

Comment 3

[bege10]

Hi,
yes, it is TB 8, but as said in comment 1, this has been the case for many previous versions already.

I meant the master password. When I am testing and thus restarting TB frequently, I have to type the master password after each restart when the time scheduled for connecting to the server set in the account settings is over.
While testing I set TB to offline mode, so this attempt to connect to the server is useless.

Comment 4

[:aceman]

Aha, OK, I can try this. Do you have any extensions/addons ? Try pasting the list of them from Help->Troubleshooting info

Comment 5

[bege10]

Attachment: List of the active extensions.

Comment 6

[:aceman]

Those are your Thunderbird extensions?

Comment 7

[bege10]

Attachment: List of active extensions

THESE are the TB extensions.

Comment 8

[bege10]

Thank you for asking, I chose the wrong file.

Comment 9

[:aceman]

I will better not ask how fast your Firefox is with those 90 extensions:)) Or TB with 73.
But, any of them can be making server connections on their own and asking for the master password. Depends on their features.
E.g. Lightning and Addon Update Checker are good candidates. But before you start hunting which one it is, try to disable them all temporarilly using TB Safe mode (Help->Restart with addons disabled). Do you get the prompt also in safe mode?

Comment 10

[bege10]

I am really astonished. I never thought this might be an issue of extensions. I thought this is TB trying to connect to my e-mail-accounts and other people must have the same problem in offline-mode. Can't you reproduce the problem? What else does TB need the master password for than to connect to the account servers? I only have stored the passwords for my accounts.
Addon Update Checker is pretty new on my computer, the problem is old, this one should not be the cause. Lightning I use only for my own appointments and events, no e-mail invitations or so.
Anyway, the next days I will try as you suggested and work in safe mode. When I have new experience with this I will come back to this thread.
(I am not sure whether I will be able to answer tomorrow, maybe not before the beginning of next week.)
Thank you so far.

Comment 11

[:aceman]

Master password protects all passwords you have stored inside Thunderbird. Those can be for your mail servers, smtp servers, web pages (forms), calendar servers, whatever.
It may be some extension is ignoring the offline flag and is making server requests on its own. Just try the Safe mode.
I will try it, but I only have Lightning and some other simple extensions.

Comment 12

[:aceman]

OK, I could test it on my machine and can confirm the bug in Safe mode too.

Comment 13

[Ludovic Hirlimann [:Usul]]

(In reply to :aceman from comment #12)
> OK, I could test it on my machine and can confirm the bug in Safe mode too.

Anything in Tools -> Error console when this happens ?

Comment 14

[:aceman]

Not that I remember. I can check again.

Comment 15

[:aceman]

No messages in error console. After entering the password, new mails are NOT downloaded (that is correct).

Comment 16

[Mark Banner (:standard8)]

Can I get some slightly clearer steps to repeat?

- Is it only the master-password dialog on first start of Thunderbird (with Thunderbird in offline mode)

- or are there other dialogs or cases where this is appearing?

Comment 17

[:aceman]

The comments so far were only about the master password, when TB is started in offline mode, or put into the mode after start. The password prompt appears when the first (in time sense) account needs to be checked, depending on their checking period.

Comment 18

[George Lerner]

Thunderbird 31.5.0
Kept asking for password to check for mail, at a time I was clearing out a full junk mail folder.
Turning on "Offline" mode, still getting asked for password.
Giving the master password seems to have shut it up.

Far too aggressive with pop-up dialog boxes stealing focus!

Should have an option on the password form "Not now for All accounts" and an option for "go offline".

Comment 19

[Ulf Zibis]

Still annoying here in TB 31.7.0. Unfortunately there are no votes on this bug, so I set the first.

If some extension asks for network, TB's password repository should not be automatically requested, if it doesn't need a password from there, so it should not force the dialogue for the master password to open.