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WhatsApp is broken, really broken

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Re: WhatsApp is broken, really broken

#61

Post by FlyingSnake »

zachalexander wrote: post #19

OT, but I'm intrigued by their business model. I don't know the history, but currently, the Android app is free, and it says the use of the service is free for the first year, then will be $0.99 per year after that. Meanwhile, the iOS app is $0.99 straight up. Thoughts: (a) "Free for a year, $1/year after that" seems like an awful long time to wait for a payday, but if it works, and you get lots of free users, I bet…

I have seen many people use WhatsApp in India where they just change the SIM cards once the trial period is over. (and it is very popular over there.)

Re: WhatsApp is broken, really broken

#64

Post by dromidas »

dllthomas wrote: post #40
dromidas wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just because a skilled attacker can trivially find the information, doesn't mean that the 15 year old kid living next door to you can find it. Now they can. The problem doesn't stem from giving information to "l33t hax0rz" but rather providing the key information that can be abused by anyone with a computer and half a brain. They are the ones more likely to make use of it in a widespread and destructive manner. But w…

My point is that most of the threats exposed don't take elite hacker, or even "l33t hax0rz", skills to discover. A hugely greater percentage of people are going to hear about this and say, "oh, I should switch to something else" or "oh, I shouldn't say sensitive things" than are going to fail to hear about this and be snooped on by someone who did and wouldn't have figured it out anyway.

Yeah I mostly agree with you, except that I highly doubt that most people who use WhatsApp will actually hear about it having a security issue, let alone care about it.

Re: WhatsApp is broken, really broken

#65

Post by HorizonXP »

andrewljohnson wrote: post #8

Did the author email the WhatsApp team to give them any chance to fix this before they splashed it across the internet for anyone to abuse? The article makes no mention of it, so I assume not. In my opinion, the obscurity peeled off by this expose did more to endanger WhatsApp users than the bad programming. So, I can only conclude this post's main goal is page views. OP could easily warn them, and at least wait unti…

A friend of mine works for WhatsApp. I tried bringing the original article to his attention, but it went down that day. I've linked him to both articles now.

I agree about the need to disclose such security issues to the authors privately. While I understand the sentiment of others, that it's such an inherent issue in their design that it'll take time to fix, that's not really a reason to not give them a chance. If it had been 1-2 months after disclosure, and it still wasn't fix, then sure, grab your pitchforks. But the initial public disclosure was on Sept. 5. I don't know if there was any private disclosure, but 10 days is not a lot of time to fix these kinds of things.

Nevertheless, I've linked them to it, let's see what they do.

Re: WhatsApp is broken, really broken

#66

Post by lnanek2 »

This app has ridiculously penetration, however. I've met people who use this and no other app not out of the box before. In foreign countries it is easier to get someone to WhatsApp me than it is to get them to text my strange US number.

Sure they solved a pain that's very common, replacing expensive text messaging, but part of their success is how easy it is for users without annoying username/password hoops to step through. They should fix the security, although I don't do anything important over it anyway, but I can't say they went wrong by avoiding a classic username/password setup that might have been more secure from the start.

Re: WhatsApp is broken, really broken

#68

Post by zachalexander »

spartango wrote: post #57
zachalexander wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tell me more. I wasn't aware app piracy was a major problem in either store.

App piracy is actually a substantial issue on both stores: On Android, sideloading of apps from unauthorized sources (not the store), and frail DRM makes piracy really easy. The US government has been targeting these sources[1], but as you can imagine, there are many. Some have said that Android app piracy may be up to 60%[2], but I think there's some sample bias in these figures and suspect it's a fair bit lower. On…

Thanks. I imagine this varies a lot with app category/demographic.

I'm not a gamer, but I've heard that many gamers have a large, ongoing appetite for new games, and perhaps this makes them more sensitive to price. Even a $0.99 price tag can seem high if you want to play a half dozen new games every month. Meanwhile, a non-gamer who downloads that many apps in a whole year might not mind paying as much.

Also, gamers seem to often be power users, so it doesn't surprise me if many of them are technically savvy enough to know how to pirate. I would imagine that apps meant for garden variety Android users might be less widely pirated.

I mean, FWIW, of the friends of mine who I know use Android phones, I estimate 80 percent would have no clue how to download a pirated app if the thought even were to occur to them. And most of the other 20 percent who are tech savvy enough to do it are probably unlikely to find it worth the hassle.

Re: WhatsApp is broken, really broken

#70

Post by satjot »

denzil_correa wrote: post #30
grk wrote: post #3

So, what's the best alternative?

Viber [1] may be a good alternative. It s free on all ecosystems - iOS, Android, WP, Blackberry, Nokia and Bada. [1] http://www.viber.com/

I sometimes use Gryphn to send super secure messages like giving a client my bank account #.
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