Comment 146 for bug 308181

I would love to have this implemented in Thunderbird, as a sysadmin that would like to make it easier for our users to connect to our service.

Regarding the security context of this, I actually think it's a great improvement, because it means people are more likely to automatically set up encrypted mail through imap(S) than if they have to manually enter the details.

2. As pointed out the MiTM risk is no worse than the current http method, and the guessing method (which actually uses the wrong server for us)

3. The MITM risk is only at setup time. If the user doesn't use autoconfig, and ends up using unencrypted mail, they are at MiTM risk everywhere they go, every coffee shop wifi, etc. Since the MitM risk is only at setup time, it's extremely hard for an attacker to exploit, because they have to convince the user to delete and recreate the connection in order to be able to hijack the autoconfigure request.

4. Doesn't the current UX flow mean that the users password is only sent to the server *AFTER* the autoconfigure completes and the server details are shown to them? What is the problem here? Doesn't the user get a chance to verify the server details?