mail-notification login fails in simplest circumstances

[John Winterton]

Description: Ubuntu 13.04
Release: 13.04
mail-notification:
  Installed: 5.4.dfsg.1-6ubuntu6
  Candidate: 5.4.dfsg.1-6ubuntu6
  Version table:
 *** 5.4.dfsg.1-6ubuntu6 0
        500 http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ raring/universe amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

My ISP runs an SMTP server that is essentially unprotected beyond a userid$password login. It uses all the defaults.
The authentication fails with this applet whereas login using Thunderbird with the same parameters does not.

Speaking with the tech support at my ISP did not elicit any information due to their lack of monitoring gear. We were unable to ascertain exactly what message the applet is sending to the server.

Because this has been a common problem on both 12.10 and 13.04 and no resolution has thus far been found, I am suspicious of the message format that is being sent by the app over the Internet. If possible, someone in your tech group should retest this applet thoroughly since there are security implications.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 13.04
Package: mail-notification 5.4.dfsg.1-6ubuntu6
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.8.0-19.29-generic 3.8.8
Uname: Linux 3.8.0-19-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.9.2-0ubuntu8
Architecture: amd64
Date: Fri Apr 26 18:25:20 2013
InstallationDate: Installed on 2012-10-22 (185 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 12.10 "Quantal Quetzal" - Release amd64 (20121017.5)
MarkForUpload: True
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=en_CA:en
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
 LANG=en_CA.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: mail-notification
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to raring on 2013-04-25 (1 days ago)

[Marc Deslauriers (mdeslaur)]

Thanks for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. We appreciate the difficulties you are facing, but this appears to be a "regular" (non-security) bug. I have unmarked it as a security issue since this bug does not show evidence of allowing attackers to cross privilege boundaries nor directly cause loss of data/privacy. Please feel free to report any other bugs you may find.

[gf (gf-interlinks-deactivatedaccount)]

Hello John,
Thank you for submitting this bug and reporting a problem with the mail-notification package. You made this bug report in 2013 and there have been several versions of Ubuntu since then.

Could you confirm that this is no longer a problem and that we can close the ticket?
If it is still a problem, are you still interested in finding a solution to this bug?
If you are, could you run the following (only once):
apport-collect 1173402
and upload the updated logs and and any other logs that are relevant for this particular issue.

Thank you again for helping make Ubuntu better.
G

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for mail-notification (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]