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Thunderbird saved/cached private key that I want to delete

Jacek Bilski
Jacek Bilski
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I'm using an SSL certificate to sign and encrypt my mail. It was working OK. Then I bought myself a security key with a smartcard functionality (YubiKey 5) and moved my private key there. I also installed another "security device" using OpenSC and through that I can see, that there is indeed my certificate on this smartcard. The problem is that when I first decrypt a mail with this key, remove the security key from USB and restart Thunderbird, I can now encrypt, decrypt and sign mails as if I had my smartcard in USB port. So the whole security idea goes completely away.

I'm looking at my key4.db file, which looks like it contains still my private key, or at least traces of certificate (if I look inside using text editor). SQLite3 is also showing some inserts. I found out about certutil and tried to take a peek inside this key4.db, but it asks me for a password which I don't have.

What am I doing wrong? What did I miss? How can I remove from Thunderbird all traces of this private key and force it to ask me for this smartcard?

I'm using an SSL certificate to sign and encrypt my mail. It was working OK. Then I bought myself a security key with a smartcard functionality (YubiKey 5) and moved my private key there. I also installed another "security device" using OpenSC and through that I can see, that there is indeed my certificate on this smartcard. The problem is that when I first decrypt a mail with this key, remove the security key from USB and restart Thunderbird, I can now encrypt, decrypt and sign mails as if I had my smartcard in USB port. So the whole security idea goes completely away. I'm looking at my key4.db file, which looks like it contains still my private key, or at least traces of certificate (if I look inside using text editor). SQLite3 is also showing some inserts. I found out about certutil and tried to take a peek inside this key4.db, but it asks me for a password which I don't have. What am I doing wrong? What did I miss? How can I remove from Thunderbird all traces of this private key and force it to ask me for this smartcard?

Chosen solution

I think you need to remove cert9.db, and possibly the obsolete cert8.db, together with key4.db (and obsolete key3.db).

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Transferring_data_to_a_new_profile_-_Thunderbird#Saved_passwords

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Files_and_folders_in_the_profile_-_Thunderbird

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All Replies (2)

sfhowes
sfhowes
  • Top 10 Contributor
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Chosen Solution

I think you need to remove cert9.db, and possibly the obsolete cert8.db, together with key4.db (and obsolete key3.db).

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Transferring_data_to_a_new_profile_-_Thunderbird#Saved_passwords

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Files_and_folders_in_the_profile_-_Thunderbird

Jacek Bilski
Jacek Bilski Question owner
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OK, the method was a bit brutal, because, as expected, I had to enter all passwords to all accounts again, but now it does seem to finally work like expected.

Thanks