Re: [Tails-dev] Icedove modifications

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Author: anonym
Date:  
To: The Tails public development discussion list
Subject: Re: [Tails-dev] Icedove modifications
01/19/2012 12:56 PM, sajolida:
> anonym:
>> 01/11/2012 11:35 PM, intrigeri:
>
>>>> * ssl_only does not check whether any fetched config (like in step
>>>> 1 and 3) uses plaintext smtp, pop or imap. Do we want this?
>>>> I wouldn't ask if it was a trivial change, but this code is
>>>> a complete mess and would need a complete reorganization for this
>>>> feature. It would make the above point less confusing. But can we
>>>> live without it?
>>>
>>> If things are kept as is, it seems to me ssl_only makes things more
>>> secure *only* for a given user if her email provider:
>>>
>>> - serves the email protocols over SSL;
>>> - does not serve an autoconfig file pointing her MUA to non-SSL.
>>>
>>> I'm not sure how we can possibly help other users: suddenly denying
>>> them access to their email does not look that appalling to me.
>>>
>>> OTOH, I would find it great if we could make it clear to them what
>>> risk they are taking. How hard would it be to implement this? (This
>>> would be a low-priority enhancement: I don't think our current Claws
>>> Mail setup has anything to say against SSL.)
>
>> Turned out to be easier than I initially thought (thanks, exceptions!).
>
>>> In any case, the current situation makes the "Only use secure
>>> protocols" checkbox a wrong statement, isn't it?
>
>> You're right. Implemented (PATCH 6/6).
>
> And what if the server provides only plaintext? I guess the autoconf
> will just fail in that case.


Correct, that's what I implemented.

> It might be nice then to tell the user she can try again the
> autoconfig without ssl_only but will get an insecure connection.


Hmm, something like that could make sense, but would honestly be a bit
tricky to implement given how things currently work. Since this isn't
very relevant for the Tails use case I think I refrain from implementing it.

Cheers!