Forums Bug Reports Login Method = None shouldn't use Certificate

Either this is a bug, or is an unexpected 'by-design'. mIRC is logging me into nickserv using my SASL Certificate, even while login method is set to 'none'. If the method is not set to SASL External, there should not be any attempt to authenticate into a nickserv account using the certificate.

I have Libera.Chat configured to use SASL External to login, by having mIRC using as a global certificate a .pem whose fingerprint has been attached to my nickserv account. In order to test a nickserv script, I disabled the SASL Cert login, by changing the login method to be 'none'.

However, I was finding that I continued to be logged into nickserv, even though I wasn't yet messaging the password to nickserv. I finally figured out that I could stop this from happening only by detaching the libera.pem from being the "private certificate file" at connect/options/ssl.

I was expecting that mIRC would be using only the login method as configured, and that it would make no attempt to identify or authenticate if the login method is set to 'none'.

This is somewhat related to the issue that the SASL certificate is available only as a global setting, where once you configure a certificate solely for the purpose of using it for SASL at 1 network, this custom certificate is then broadcast to all other networks too, unless you specifically create a throwaway certificate to be used for connecting to other networks, then use the /server -key switch to connect to the other networks while broadcasting another identifier certificate different than the certificate used for SASL at the 1st network. And, I'm informed that /sockopen -e also is using the RSA Cert I created solely for SASL External at 1 network, and there's no sockopen switch to opt-out of that.

https://forums.mirc.com/ubbthreads.php/topics/269593/extra-options-for-certificates

update:
This happens when using the alt+e serverlist, as well as using /server -l none, unless I unload the certificate, or force the network to use a non-SSL port like 6667.

The server itself is the one logging you in based on the certificate because you have configured it to do so. mIRC is not logging you in. Selecting 'none' should not prevent the client cert from being used because the cert is not used only for nickserv authentication.

The server can't log me into my nickserv account if mIRC is not an active participant in the handshake where the server challenges me to prove that I possess the private key for the SASL External certificate.

mIRC is not an active participant in this case. If you have specified a certficate in the SSL dialog, it is loaded for SSL connections and identifies your connection to servers that you connect to. No challenge or negotiation is required.