Avast 2014 and SSL email in Thunderbird

[Avax_7]

Sorry that it didn't work for you. Perhaps consider fully removing Thunderbird then reinstalling. There's no guarantee that it would solve the problem!

As for the Group Policy settings - I just posted that "for information only" and didn't intend to suggest that it would be a good idea for inexperienced users to mess about with it. It's just that I'm aware that a standard windows 7 installation has numerous security misconfigurations that could be fixed/ improved and that's just one of them.

Picture the following scenario: Another user has access to your machine and disables the Avast mail shield in order to download and open an attachment that is blocked. They can do that no problem but with the fix in place it's impossible. Of course this shouldn't concern you if you're the sole user.

If I may, uninstalling and installing -and that because of a peculiarity of behalf of Avast!- is not a decent option! I prefer to disable the scanning of SSL/TLS connections instead, or even to use another antivirus (in the worst case scenario).

Regarding the other stuff,two observations:
a) well... even so, Avast! should be able to scan the entire system afterwards -it is its role after all...
b) I am the only user of this machine

[helkav]

I have been around the houses with this issue. none of the solutions suggested on the forum (not just on this thread) or by Avast support have helped. initially one solution re fixing certificates seemed to work, but today I suddenly could not send emails again. This is unbelievably flaky. I have had to turn off email scanning completely and hope that the file system scan covers it. My ISP does some pretty good spam handling so I'm not too worried about that.

I'm now wondering what I paid for since the SafeZone (which seemed like a great idea, a way to turn off that resource hungry rapport service) is a bit flaky as well. I guess I can chalk it up to experience (and also the fact that Avast the free version did a solid job for several years - wierd how as soon as I start paying for software it seems to degrade in quality...)

I may move to another antivirus eventually , Ad-Aware is getting some really good reviews, but I'd like to give Avast a chance to sort this out - I think they should realise they will seriously lose custom here

[Avax_7]

...
I may move to another antivirus eventually , Ad-Aware is getting some really good reviews, but I'd like to give Avast a chance to sort this out - I think they should realise they will seriously lose custom here

I had the same thought, yet -after a lot of research- I came up with the conclusion that there is no flawless solution. For instance, the BitDefender (free edition) has major conflicts with CCleaner (a very handy and useful piece of software -in Windows OS). Similar drawbacks can be found in almost all of the solutions out there (like, e.g., Avira, AVG, Panta Cloud, etc).

So, for the time being I stay with Avast (which, otherwise, is pretty good) hoping that eventually the problem will be solved. If case that the problem persists, one can try either of the following procedures:
a) instead of following, by the letter, the steps mention here http://www.avast.com/en-eu/faq.php?article=AVKB91#artTitle, one could simply follow the variation (after having deleted all previously installed certificates):

"Settings > Active Protection > I chose "Mail Shield", clicked on Settings (i.e., Mail Shield Settings) > SSL Scanning (the "Scan SSL connections" was already checked), I chose "Export Certificate" (which, in contrast to the procedure in a) produces a certificate with .der -instead of .cer- format). The exportation was successful and, I imported the new one -as described in the aforementioned link"

AND

in Thunderbird, in "Options > Security > Anti-Virus tab", the single option must be checked.

b) if a) does not work (in due course) then disable the "SSL/TLS connection scanning" in Avast!, hoping that the file system scan will cover that as well.

[dbrusco]

I have also been having this problem since updating to 2014 (now 2014.9.0.2007 on Win 7 Pro x64 Thunderbird 24.1.0), and now, unless I uncheck "Scan SSL Connections" in Settings>Active Protection>Mail Shield (the other three Main items are checked) I can't get mail. And Avast shows no mail scanning in Statistics.

In my attempts to get rid of the pop up error, I tried to delete the Avast mail certificate but it keeps telling me there already is one (from 3/13). Just now I looked under the Authorities tab and the Avast entry was gone. I reimported it (and see that also says 3/13), and restarted TB (now there don't seem to be any Server entries for Avast in there now).
The same "avast! Mail Shield encountered a problem with the secure connection to your mail server. You may need to configure the SSL scan feature manually..." came up, as well as the TB "Add Security Exception popups, in this case for imap.googlemail.com:993 (8 accounts), imap.gmail.com:993, pod51000.outlook.com:993, pop.att.yahoo.com:995 (5 accounts). All server connections are set as SSL/TLS.

I cannot get/receive mail unless I deselect the Avast SSL Scanning, and it looks like none of the mail is scanned that way, according to the statistics. Can somebody please tell me how to configure TB and Avast to work together so my mail is scanned.

[Avax_7]

I have also been having this problem since updating to 2014 (now 2014.9.0.2007 on Win 7 Pro x64 Thunderbird 24.1.0), and now, unless I uncheck "Scan SSL Connections" in Settings>Active Protection>Mail Shield (the other three Main items are checked) I can't get mail. And Avast shows no mail scanning in Statistics.

In my attempts to get rid of the pop up error, I tried to delete the Avast mail certificate but it keeps telling me there already is one (from 3/13). Just now I looked under the Authorities tab and the Avast entry was gone. I reimported it (and see that also says 3/13), and restarted TB (now there don't seem to be any Server entries for Avast in there now).
The same "avast! Mail Shield encountered a problem with the secure connection to your mail server. You may need to configure the SSL scan feature manually..." came up, as well as the TB "Add Security Exception popups, in this case for imap.googlemail.com:993 (8 accounts), imap.gmail.com:993, pod51000.outlook.com:993, pop.att.yahoo.com:995 (5 accounts). All server connections are set as SSL/TLS.

I cannot get/receive mail unless I deselect the Avast SSL Scanning, and it looks like none of the mail is scanned that way, according to the statistics. Can somebody please tell me how to configure TB and Avast to work together so my mail is scanned.

Hello,

try the following steps (to be sure):

1) if possible (i.e., if you are using an IMAP e-mail account, like gmail) perform a clean uninstall of Thunderbird

    (a) "Control Panel > Programs > Uninstall" and Choose Thunderbird
    (b) afterwards, use CCleaner (http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner) to remove any remnants
    (c) Start > type %AppData% (and press Enter). A folder named "Roaming" will appear in Windows Explorer. Delete any Thunderbird related folder. Do the same with folders
         "Local" and "Local flow", which belong to the same folder three as "Roaming"
    (d) restart Windows

NOTE: Regarding step (c), you should be very careful -especially if you are also using Firefox

2) Then install Thunderbird again. After having your e-mail account set, do the following

    (a) In Thunderbird: "Options > Security > Anti-Virus tab", the single option must be checked
    (b) In Avast!(*): "Settings > Active Protection >" choose "Mail Shield", click on "Settings (i.e., Mail Shield Settings) > SSL Scanning" and make sure that "Scan SSL connections"     
          is checked. Then chose "Export Certificate" (which will produce a certificate with .der -instead of .cer- format).
    (c) Import it to Thunderbird: "Option > Advanced > Certificates > View Certificates > Authorities > Import". Make sure that in the tab "Servers" (next to "Authorities") there is 
         nothing related neither to Avast! nor to any recent certificate, which was added as an exception.

Hopefully, these will help...

(*) there is a new version of Avast!, so update 

[helkav]

hmmm I have completely uninstalled and am using ad-aware free as a stopgap. I will reinstall today, and follow ajax's instructions. last chance dance I think. this has already taken way too much time

not that I'm not grateful for everyone's help here and I agree there is no perfect solution...but not being able to send my IMAP email at all is too far from perfect for me - call me fussy!

I will update if reinstall etc is successful...

[helkav]

update: I have uninstalled, deleted default avast certs from TB, then exported & imported der cert file : huzzah imap and pop mail are working again...for now.

and I even have SSL scanning switched on!

hopefully I will not have any more issues - I don't have 100% confidence as I thought it was working previously, and it suddenly stopped working - without any update so I have no idea what goes in the mind of avast!

[jc836]

Problem as described is more of a nuisance for me.  True, it is not a constant issue on this Windows 7 64bit machine.
I took a look at Ccleaner's Options settings and "excluded" Thunderbird from being cleaned.  I also unchecked it in the "Applications" list.   Tested on our 32bit  Windows 7 laptop to see what is happening; does not happen so far.  I have seen this with Thunderbird and Verizon in the past, btw.  (Avast Free 2014 9.0.2008)

[Avax_7]

@helkav: If you have followed the instructions in my previous post, hopefully, you will have a working system. At least, in my case, it seems to work (although, sporadically, I have
               some pop ups but my e-mails are delivered/received normally).

@jc836: I am not sure that you have made the right choice (i.e., regarding CCleaner). I am saying that because Thunderbird cleaning has nothing to do with the (imported)
              certificates.

Note: I have observed that the majority (if not the totality) of those sporadically appearing pop-ups manifests right after a Windows resuming (e.g., after a secure screen saver), i.e., 
          when the connection was lost and then reset.

[helkav]

@ajax
status update: all still working sweet 
fingers crossed this is a permanent fix

I would say to others that I had tried the various fixed involving certs etc perviously, but the combo of an uninstall/reinstall and then applying the fixes seems to have sorted everything out

fyi i have windows 7 64bit / TB 28.0a1 (Daily update version) / multiple accounts using both pop and imap

thanks to people on the forum, especially ajax for the help with sorting this out. where would we all be without forums like this?

[Avax_7]

@ajax
status update: all still working sweet 
fingers crossed this is a permanent fix

I would say to others that I had tried the various fixed involving certs etc perviously, but the combo of an uninstall/reinstall and then applying the fixes seems to have sorted everything out

fyi i have windows 7 64bit / TB 28.0a1 (Daily update version) / multiple accounts using both pop and imap

thanks to people on the forum, especially ajax for the help with sorting this out. where would we all be without forums like this?

I am glad that I might have helped . In any case, please also consider my notes in my posts.

Regarding Thunderbird, I have version 24.1.0. Also, when dealing with Mozilla projects (Firefox, etc) it is advisable to perform a clean uninstall, as I have described it, first.

[jc836]

Avax_7:
I was testing the notion that Ccleaner might indeed impact the settings for Thunderbird 24.0.1.  I will retry using it as it has never been harmful before.

[dbrusco]

@Avax
You said "if possible"--not all my accounts are IMAP, some are pop3 and I have local folders, plus Lightning installed both with Google  and local calendars. Will I be able to keep my data if I uninstall as you indicated?

[Avax_7]

@Avax
You said "if possible"--not all my accounts are IMAP, some are pop3 and I have local folders, plus Lightning installed both with Google  and local calendars. Will I be able to keep my data if I uninstall as you indicated?

No -what I wrote is for a clean uninstall (i.e., nothing will be left). So, before you do that, consult these:
https://support.mozillamessaging.com/en-US/kb/moving-thunderbird-data-to-a-new-computer
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Thunderbird_:_FAQs_:_Migration

[helkav]

I hope I have not led to a misunderstanding as to my solution. I get the feeling I might have from the last few posts Here is exactly what I did:

 - I did not uninstall Thunderbird, just Avast
 - used a reg tool to find and delete all data in the registry with avast in them
 - reinstalled Avast
 - deleted the certs from Thunderbird,
 - exported a .der cert file
 - imported the .der cert file into thunderbird

after the above all my mail accounts are working even with SSL scanning turned on