722974 - Thunderbird only allows new account creation over port 22

Status: RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

(Thunderbird :: Account Manager, defect)

Description

[Isis Lovecruft]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:9.0.1) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/9.0.1 Iceweasel/9.0.1
Build ID: 20111222080735

Steps to reproduce:

I attempted to set up a new account through the Thunderbird "Add Account..." setting. I was connect to a VPN (OpenVPN, tested and working for all traffic, including already-in-use email ports) and then to the Tor network (Tor was also testing and working, and I have done dev work for the Tor Project, so I'm quite certain that this is not at all the issue here). I configured Thunderbird to *only* allow traffic through the VPN and then through Tor.

When attempting to set up the new account, my Tor and VPN logs did not show any activity, and so I delved deeper to see how Thunderbird was attempting the connection. Thunderbird was trying to connect over port 22, which is not only strange, but also a huge security issue for users trying to set up account anonymously, or user who are experiencing government-imposed connection restrictions.

In short, Thunderbird should allow new account connections over configurable ports other port 22, or it should be easily configurable to do so.

Comment 1

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin] (away, back Aug 4)]

> I configured Thunderbird to *only* allow traffic through the VPN and then through Tor.

I don't know what you did, but i don't think thunderbird ever uses the ssh port for anything unless you configured it specifically to do so somehow.

Comment 2

[Tom Lowenthal]

I don't think that this is an expected behavior for Thunderbird. Perhaps your configuration has exposed a bug? Could you document in as much detail as you can the steps that you took to set up Thunderbird and the connection? Your Thunderbird version and build would be useful too. It would really help if you could try newer versions to see if you get the same behavior.

Comment 3

[Joshua Cranmer [:jcranmer]]

RESOLVED INCOMPLETE due to lack of response to last question. If you feel this change was made in error, please respond to this bug with your reasons why.