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Email client security warning - "The certificate for imap.gmail.com does not come from a trusted source"

PolarisX

Hello.

Lately, for no apparent reason, I’ve been getting a security warning from email client I'm using (Thunderbird):

"The certificate for imap.gmail.com does not come from a trusted source"

This notification appears only for my Google accounts.

Could Bitdefender Antivirus be causing this? Or is this a security alert about a scam?

Thank you.

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Accepted answers

Alexandru_BD

Hi,

This usually happens when the Encrypted Web Scan component from Online Threat Prevention inspects encrypted traffic. In that situation, Thunderbird may see a Bitdefender-generated certificate instead of the original Gmail certificate. If Thunderbird does not trust that local Bitdefender certificate, it can display the warning that the certificate for imap.gmail.com does not come from a trusted source.

Try this:

In Thunderbird, open the certificate details from the warning. If the issuer mentions Bitdefender, the warning is very likely caused by local HTTPS/SSL inspection. In case the issuer is unknown or suspicious, do not accept the certificate exception.
Then open Bitdefender, go to Protection → Online Threat Prevention module → Settings and temporarily disable Encrypted Web Scan only as a test. Restart Thunderbird and check if the warning disappears. If the warning disappears with EWS disabled, I think that confirms the cause. I would not recommend leaving protection disabled permanently. In that case, the best next step is to contact Bitdefender Support and explain that Thunderbird does not trust the Bitdefender certificate for Gmail IMAP traffic. They may need to help repair/reinstall the Bitdefender certificate on the device.
In addition to this, make sure Windows date/time are correct and that both Thunderbird and Bitdefender are fully updated.
Since you mentioned that using chat may be difficult because you rely on a translator, you can use the email/contact form option instead of live chat. Include a screenshot of the Thunderbird certificate warning and, if possible, the certificate issuer details.

I hope this helps.

Regards.

Alexandru_BD

You're welcome. Adding the Thunderbird application to split-tunneling would mean that the app traffic will bypass the encrypted VPN tunnel. That does not automatically mean your email contents are exposed, because most email apps use their own encryption. The privacy risk mainly depends on what you expect the VPN to protect. If Thunderbird is excluded, the VPN will not hide your real IP address from the email provider, and it will not protect the app’s traffic from local network-level observation beyond whatever encryption the email app already uses. On public Wi-Fi, that usually still means your email content remains encrypted, but the connection is less private than if it also went through the VPN.

All comments

Flexx

https://community.bitdefender.com/en/discussion/106435/email-client-security-warning

Kindly contact Bitdefender support by visiting https://www.bitdefender.com/consumer/support/help/

Select, How to's & Troubleshooting Bitdefender products→Troubleshooting→I don't know→Contact Support→ You will get the option of chat, call or email.

To get an immediate update, make use of the chat option. Also, ensure that no ad blockers or privacy extensions are enabled in your web browser, as they may prevent the chat window from appearing.

Regards

PolarisX

Thank you for your reply.

If I need to contact support via chat, it will be a bit difficult in practice, because I mainly use a translator.
However, if the issue can’t be resolved here, I’ll give it a try.
Thank you.

Alexandru_BD

Hi,

Try this:

I hope this helps.

Regards.

PolarisX

Thank you very much for the suggestions.

Bitdefender is not mentioned as the cause, so I am not accepting the certificate exception.

However, for some reason that stopped happening or appears unexpectedly from time to time.

The next time this problem comes up, I'll follow your advice to resolve it.

At this point, I would like to ask whether adding the Thunderbird application to the split-tunneling list, would pose a risk to the privacy of my email communications.