[tor-bugs] #10836 [TorBirdy]: Enable mail account autoconfig dialog in TorBirdy

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#10836: Enable mail account autoconfig dialog in TorBirdy
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     Reporter:  ben          |      Owner:  ben
         Type:  enhancement  |     Status:  new
     Priority:  normal       |  Milestone:
    Component:  TorBirdy     |    Version:
   Resolution:               |   Keywords:
Actual Points:               |  Parent ID:
       Points:               |
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Changes (by tagnaq):

 * cc: tagnaq@… (added)


Comment:

 Hi ben,

 thanks for your help to bring autoconfiguration to TorBirdy users.

 Replying to [ticket:10836 ben]:
 > The reason why the autoconfig dialog was disabled were some HTTP
 (without SSL) calls and direct socket calls.
 > Thus, in Mozilla bug 669282 [1], I attached a patch to disable them. I
 wrote this patch specifically for TorBirdy.
 > [1] https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=669282

 Autoconfiguration is disabled for mainly two reasons:

 (1) it leaks requests and does not adhere to Thunderbird's proxy settings
 [3]
 (This issue is limited to the guessing phase and does not affect the
 entire autoconfiguration feature. I'm not sure if guessing is something we
 want at all - even if it wouldn't leak.)
 (2) it might uses an insecure channel (HTTP) to fetch the MUA
 configuration (even if it goes through the proxy this is not something we
 would want)

 Only if both issues are addressed we could probably enable
 autoconfiguration.

 I assume 'mailnews.auto_config.guess.enabled = false' would fix the proxy
 bypass (1) phase by skipping it.
 The insecure HTTP  fetches (going to the ISP, not Mozilla/ISPDB) (2) would
 be fixed by opting-out via 'fetchFromISP.enabled = false'.
 So in the end TorBirdy users would only use the ISPDB part (HTTPS fetches)
 of Thunderbird's autoconfiguration feature with the above settings.

 If my understanding is correct, I would test your patch with the above
 settings to get some real testresults.

 Another issue that might result from autoconfiguration:
 I generally recommend POP3 over IMAP for TorBirdy users, IIRC
 autoconfiguration will default to IMAP over POP3.


 [2] https://developer.mozilla.org/en-
 US/docs/Mozilla/Thunderbird/Autoconfiguration
 [3] https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=669238

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Ticket URL: <https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/10836#comment:2>
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