SMTP credentials set unexpectedly

[tma]

Still unsure whether this has been reported before or not - because this bug is quite visible and I can verify it on 1.3.2 and 1.3.6 (no 1.3.7 used yet):

Unexpectedly, the UI keeps setting SMTP credentials when the SMTP Username and Password fields should actually be empty (because my mail server would not want them). It replaces empty settings with the logon credentials to the switch which are obviously invalid on my mail server. I'm still unsure whether there is a difference between 1.3.2 and 1.3.6 and it's actually not easy to give an easy recipe but one of the following should work to reproduce the bug:

Setup SMTP without Username and Password (at that point, in my case a TEST message would succeed). Be sure to have something else changed and click Save/Apply. Now log out and log in again. Right after logging in, in some cases (not sure when exactly) the Save/Apply button would already indicate a change (being white) and if you visit the SMTP settings you would see that there are credentials set. If you clear them at this point and click on another tab, the Save/Apply button would magically revert to the no-saving-needed grey state, i.e. the default credentials sneaked in right after logging in.

Sometimes though, right after logging in, the Save/Apply button would remain grey and if you visit the SMTP settings, they are actually empty. However, if you then change some other setting and save (without visiting the SMTP credentials), the credentials would again default to the switch login credentials after clicking Save/Apply - only that this will be visible after the next log in only. I'm not sure if that happens always but it happened many times on me.

This is not a big one, but it's a nasty one, because it keeps invalidating my SMTP setup if I need to change something else and forget to check the SMTP settings before saving and then logging out and in again, to be sure it is the way I want.

[tma]

To add: I just checked on a WS-6-MINI with Firmware 1.2.4 and it does not show this bug as it seems.

On 1.3.2 and 1.3.6, if empty credentials are saved, you log out and log in and the Save/Apply button isn't lit right away, just log out and log in once more (without doing anything else in the UI). That seems to work quite reliably for me to demonstrate the bug.

[tma]

Sorry, just figured out and want to make you believe me this time ;-) ... sometimes I need to log out and in 3 or 4 times to get the Save/Apply button lit right after logging in. Seems to be a race condition - and if that's the case, it might as well depend on the browser: I'm on Firefox 42.

[lligetfa]

Unexpectedly, the UI keeps setting SMTP credentials when the SMTP Username and Password fields should actually be empty (because my mail server would not want them). It replaces empty settings with the logon credentials to the switch which are obviously invalid on my mail server...

Make sure it is not a browser addon like lastpass that is filling in the creds. I was having lastpass do that to me on UniFI Video.

[tma]

Good point. I don't have such addons installed but Firefox' "remember password" function is turned on. Also, now being in the office, I fail to reproduce this behavior when using my oldish Windows 2003 PC. Same Firefox 42 installed and actually synced to the Firefox on my home office PC which runs Windows 7. So I need to sort this out when I'm back home.

[tma]

Okay, being back home at my Win7 PC with Firefox 42.0, I can confirm:

** lligetfa is right ... the problem is that Firefox will not only put my credentials into the login dialog, but also into SMTP credentials on the Device Config page, right after logging in, activating the Save/Apply button (at least if they are empty as I want them to be). This won't happen every time I log in, but usually a second or third try will show the effect.

** Once I deleted the saved login credentials for a switch (making me type name and password manually to connect), Firefox will not change the SMTP credentials. I tried that many times. Obviously, I had to ignore the offer to save my logon credentials again.

** Once I accept the offer to save my login and password, Firefox will start to mess around with my SMTP settings - maybe not in the next logout-login cycle, but it happened in the second.

** I fail to reproduce this behavior on Windows 2003 (my other PC), but Firefox is the same (auto-updated) version 42.0.

** HTTP or HTTPS - no difference

** Now if that only was a fault on Firefox' side I shouldn't complain. But I haven't found any such behavior on other websites and device interfaces. Maybe it's because the field names SMTP_Username and SMTP_Password contain the magic keywords and let the browser detect a login dialog ... or it's that the placeholder strings say Username and Password, triggering something in Firefox ... both form element names and placeholder strings (even in connected labels) are used as clues. Would be worth having an 'autocomplete="off"' attribute on these elements.

[Eric Stern]

** Now if that only was a fault on Firefox' side I shouldn't complain. But I haven't found any such behavior on other websites and device interfaces. Maybe it's because the field names SMTP_Username and SMTP_Password contain the magic keywords and let the browser detect a login dialog ... or it's that the placeholder strings say Username and Password, triggering something in Firefox ... both form element names and placeholder strings (even in connected labels) are used as clues. Would be worth having an 'autocomplete="off"' attribute on these elements.

I'll add 'autocomplete="off"' in the next release.

[tma]

I'll add 'autocomplete="off"' in the next release.

I verified you did add 'autocomplete="off"' in 1.3.9 -- not only to the username and password fields, but also to other SMTP-related fields. So, just to give you feedback about this (certainly minor) issue: it hasn't helped ... auto completion of the SMTP username and password fields still happens *sometimes* when credentials are stored for logging in to a switch and immediately activates the Save/Apply button right after logging in.

I'm no HTML or Firefox expert and wouldn't know what to try next ...

Many thanks for trying anyway.

[lligetfa]

I recently ran into an autocomplete issue with Chrome on a field that had it set to off. The next release of Chrome resolved it.

Make sure you are not using a 3rd party addin such as LastPass as those can sometimes stuff fields for you.

[Eric Stern]

Yes, apparently Firefox ignores "autocomplete=off". Nice.

I've implemented a workaround that seems to work with the latest Firefox. It'll be in the next release.