MAGA-Themed Messaging App Converso Leaks Users' Phone Numbers Despite Security Claims
By
e_daigle
The kind of bagel that ruins lesser bagels for you.
Summary
The article details a security vulnerability in Converso, a MAGA-themed messaging app that claimed to offer state-of-the-art end-to-end encryption and no metadata collection. Despite these security claims, a security researcher discovered that the app was leaking users' phone numbers due to basic security flaws. The article examines how the app's developers, who lacked mobile app development experience, created an insecure application that exposed user data, highlighting the dangers of security claims without proper implementation.
Key quotes
· 4 pulledNeither of us had prior experience developing mobile apps, but we thought, 'Hey, we're both smart. This shouldn't be too difficult.'
Converso made some pretty impressive claims about its security: it claimed to implement state of the art end-to-end encryption, to collect no metadata, and to use a decentralized architecture that involved no servers at all.
Unfortunately, security researcher crnković did some basic reverse engineering and traffic analysis...
You can be, do, and have whatever you want, except for not spilling user information
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