Ransomware Alert: Are You Using A Trusted Version Of Thunderbird?

October 2, 2023 Heather Ellsworth 3 responses

Recently, the Thunderbird team became aware of some ransomware masquerading as Thunderbird. There are several ransomware groups that run ads in an attempt to trick people into downloading and installing fake software, which pretends to be other software, e.g. Thunderbird. Remember that the Thunderbird project doesn’t require payments for downloading the Thunderbird software (although you may see a donation request when downloading from thunderbird.net), so if you are being demanded for payment for a properly working Thunderbird, something is surely wrong with the package you are downloading.

There are ongoing Mozilla efforts to take down these sites but since they are hosted in Russia, takedowns are difficult and often not effective. What you can do in the meantime is to make sure you are getting Thunderbird from a trusted location like thunderbird.net directly, or your Linux distribution’s software store.

At Thunderbird, we want to keep our users informed and safe, so please review the following pages on related topics. The most up to date information is available in our using trusted sources of Thunderbird and optionally how you can verify the integrity of your download articles.

For your convenience, we have also included a list of trusted sources below:

Trusted Thunderbird Download Sources

There are a handful of trusted places you can get Thunderbird from, aside from our thunderbird.net website. Additionally, you may choose to download Thunderbird from sources related to your distro.

Windows

There are two ways to download Thunderbird onto your Windows system:

Click Download on thunderbird.net to download the latest release for your platform.
Thunderbird is available in the Microsoft store.

For installation instructions, please refer to our Installing Thunderbird on Windows page.

MacOS

For MacOS, the only recommended channel is downloading Thunderbird from thunderbird.net.

For installation instructions, please refer to our Installing Thunderbird on Mac page.

Linux

There are a few of ways to download Thunderbird on Linux:

Click Download on thunderbird.net to download the latest release for your platform.
Use the software installation method offered by your Linux distribution to install the Thunderbird package.
Get the Thunderbird flatpak from flathub.
Get the Thunderbird snap from the snap store.

For installation instructions, please refer to our Installing Thunderbird on Linux page.

Thunderbird Software Archive

When downloading from the thunderbird.net website, it automatically allows you to download the correct Thunderbird package for your language and your operating system. Advanced users can find all available localized versions for the current release at https://www.thunderbird.net/thunderbird/all/.

All available releases of Thunderbird (current and past) are available at https://archive.mozilla.org/pub/thunderbird/releases/.

Tags: Ransomware Thunderbird Trusted Sources

3 responses

dontchangemysettings wrote on October 4, 2023 at 22:56

wasted my day trying to find out how to get the previous version of tb after latest version screwed up my settings…looking for alternative because help here is hopeless

Jason Evangelho wrote on October 6, 2023 at 18:58

Hi, it’s true that our blog is not the place for support: we have a dedicated website for that with many support volunteers from all over the world. https://support.mozilla.org/products/thunderbird

kfssfg wrote on October 12, 2023 at 07:07

where exactly do i create that policies.json to prevent thunderbird from downgrading to that dreaded 115.x (supernova)?

i guess i need to enter following three items into that policies.json file?

AppAutoUpdate:
{
“policies”: {
“AppAutoUpdate”: true | false
}
}

DisableAppUpdate:
Code:
{
“policies”: {
“DisableAppUpdate”: true | false
}
}

ManualAppUpdateOnly:
Code:
{
“policies”: {
“ManualAppUpdateOnly”: true | false
}
}

is there anything else i need to do?

i need to completely PREVENT thunderbird from “updating” to 115.x (supernova)!

and much MORE IMPORTANT: will it be SAVE TO OPEN “about thunderbird” window WITHOUT triggering an “update” (=downgrade”) to version 115.x supernova if i open that “about thunderbird” window?
i STILL WANT TO BE ABLE TO OPEN “about thunderbird” window WITHOUT HAVING TO FEAR an automatic “update”!!!

is it enough to have policies.json file with these three items in it to be safe from updating also in “about thunderbird” window?

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