Re: [tor-talk] Vidalia error message with TorBirdy

[Roger Dingledine <arma@xxxxxxx>]

On Tue, Jul 02, 2013 at 09:27:23PM +0000, anonymous coward wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> I start Tor with Vidalia. And I use TorBirdy with Thunderbird.
> 
> Sometimes I see a message from Vidalia:
> 
> This is from the Vidalia log:
> Jul 02 22:34:44.907  Application request to port 143: this port is
> commonly used for unencrypted protocols. Please make sure you don't send
> anything you would mind the rest of the Internet reading!
> 
> Why should TorBirdy connect to 143? There is  nothing on port 143 on my
> machine though....

It sounds like your Thunderbird is attempting to access a destination
over Tor (probably your imap server) where the destination port is 143.

Port 143 is the default port for imap. Port 993 is the default port
for imaps.

Usually when you're using imap and not imaps, you don't use SSL. That
means somebody in between the exit relay and your destination (including
the exit relay itself) can watch you fetch your mail, read the mail,
log in after you and fetch some more of it, etc.

(I say "usually" and "default" in the above, since maybe you're actually
doing everything perfectly -- ports are just numbers and you can do
whatever you like over whatever port you like. But unless you know you're
safe, you probably aren't.)

--Roger

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