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robertspierre
Asked: 2020-12-16 20:09:02 +0800 CST

How does Mozilla Thunderbird handles my key, and can it import directly from gpg keyring?

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I managed to export my keys from gpg in an armored text format, and import them in Mozilla Thunderbird, both the public and the private key.

  1. Is there a way to avoid this process, and have Mozilla Thunderbird communicate with gpg directly?

  2. I noticed that, when I encrypt a message, Mozilla Thunderbird doesn't ask me the password for the private key. So I assume Mozilla Thunderbird stored it somewhere. Where does Thunderbird store my password for the private key, and is it saved in plain text? I don't want it to be stored in plain text

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3 Answers

  1. The answer is no. There is no way to have Mozilla Thunderbird utilize your existing gpg keyring for public keys.

    Per this thread:

    Public keys have to be imported into Thunderbird OpenPGP. There is no way around that. This is a design choice.

    This is pretty mind-blowing. Can we go back to enigmail? Now we all have to maintain two distinct databases with the same content storing my contact's trusted keys and their level of trust :(

    If we meet someone in-person and are able to verify their fingerprint and identity, we have to update it in more than one place. If we forget, then it's a nightmare trying to keep it all in-sync.

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  2. Best Answer

    My questions were answered here by Christian Riechers on the Thunderbird e3ee group.

    Specifically:

    1. We can tell Mozilla Thunderbird to take the private key from gpg directly by treating gpg like a smartcard. See here for details. The public key must be imported into Thunderbird instead

    2. We can setup a Thunderbird master password. See here

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  3. There is a workaround to achieve what you want using the mail.openpgp.allow_external_gnupg setting.

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