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Identifying which "software security device" is requesting a password

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  • 7 have this problem
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  • Last reply by christ1

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I love Thunderbird and use it for reading multiple POP3 and IMAP accounts from multiple mail providers as well as sending to those accounts using SMTP. I understand that a user must identify to Thunderbird by using a Master Password which can (should) be different from the passwords used to read and send messages. However, it is confusing to receive multiple instances of the pop-up dialog box "Please enter the Master Password for the Software Security Device" without an indication of which mail account, certificate, security module or device, or password is being requested.

The pop-up normally appears when Thunderbird is initialized, but unless there is some sort of problem, such as an expired certificate, I get two different instances of the pop-up. One (the first?) I suppose is the Master Password for Thunderbird, but what the heck is the second? I use Thunderbird with five different e-mail accounts from three providers, so there is no obvious reason for only two pop-ups. I would expect three (one per provider) or five (one per account) but not two.

When there is some sort of problem (recently, I had several expired certificates) I get at least one pop-up per account (hard to know for certain as they are not identified.)

I also use Firefox exclusively as my web client, and have noted that the dialog box for the Firefox Master Password is identical to that of Thunderbird.

I would greatly appreciate a small mod to the security dialogues to identify the source or affected "Security Device" that produced the pop-up.

Thanks for any insights, and for considering a small feature request.

--Richard

I love Thunderbird and use it for reading multiple POP3 and IMAP accounts from multiple mail providers as well as sending to those accounts using SMTP. I understand that a user must identify to Thunderbird by using a Master Password which can (should) be different from the passwords used to read and send messages. However, it is confusing to receive multiple instances of the pop-up dialog box "Please enter the Master Password for the Software Security Device" without an indication of which mail account, certificate, security module or device, or password is being requested. The pop-up normally appears when Thunderbird is initialized, but unless there is some sort of problem, such as an expired certificate, I get two different instances of the pop-up. One (the first?) I suppose is the Master Password for Thunderbird, but what the heck is the second? I use Thunderbird with five different e-mail accounts from three providers, so there is no obvious reason for only two pop-ups. I would expect three (one per provider) or five (one per account) but not two. When there is some sort of problem (recently, I had several expired certificates) I get at least one pop-up per account (hard to know for certain as they are not identified.) I also use Firefox exclusively as my web client, and have noted that the dialog box for the Firefox Master Password is identical to that of Thunderbird. I would greatly appreciate a small mod to the security dialogues to identify the source or affected "Security Device" that produced the pop-up. Thanks for any insights, and for considering a small feature request. --Richard

Chosen solution

The multiple master password prompt is a bug, not a feature. Using the add-on is a workaround.

When your problem has been fixed, can you mark the thread as 'Solved' please? Thank you.

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Multiple master password prompts is a known problem. As a workaround install this add-on. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/startupmaster/

For more information about the master password see http://kb.mozillazine.org/Master_password

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Startup Master indeed gets rid of the second request for Master Password when there are no other issues, but could still be improved by identifying the source of the pop-up.

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Chosen Solution

The multiple master password prompt is a bug, not a feature. Using the add-on is a workaround.

When your problem has been fixed, can you mark the thread as 'Solved' please? Thank you.