I think that https://molly.im/ is better than Signal Android.
FBI Extracted Deleted Signal Messages Saved in iPhone Notification Database
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Re: FBI Extracted Deleted Signal Messages Saved in iPhone Notification Database
#12This is well known in the op-sec communities. iOS and Android notifications route through their servers and can be stored indefinitely (ie especially under a court order) You need to disable the content previews if you want to be secure. But even the notification metadata can be quite valuable to law enforcement (who is messaging you, what time of day, etc.) Also standard requirement on govt mobile devices to disable…
Ironically, I've got most notifications disabled because I simply find them annoying. I think SMS, phone calls and my CGM are the only things that cause my phone to regularly make noise.
Re: FBI Extracted Deleted Signal Messages Saved in iPhone Notification Database
#13Can someone explain why notification databases are stored for a long period of time? The article is behind a paywall.
I presume it's from here:
> Notification Center shows your notifications history, allowing you to scroll back and see what you've missed.
https://support.apple.com/en-ca/108781
Note that although Android has a similar "notification history" feature, it's disabled by default and requires opt-in.
Re: FBI Extracted Deleted Signal Messages Saved in iPhone Notification Database
#14Re: FBI Extracted Deleted Signal Messages Saved in iPhone Notification Database
#15> Signal had been removed, but incoming notifications were preserved in internal memory Why are app notifications not part of app data that gets deleted on uninstall???
Notifications are not part of an app, it is a service provided by Apple/Google
Most notifications are sent by backend servers straight to Apple/Google
Re: FBI Extracted Deleted Signal Messages Saved in iPhone Notification Database
#16This is well known in the op-sec communities. iOS and Android notifications route through their servers and can be stored indefinitely (ie especially under a court order) You need to disable the content previews if you want to be secure. But even the notification metadata can be quite valuable to law enforcement (who is messaging you, what time of day, etc.) Also standard requirement on govt mobile devices to disable…
If you run your own XMPP server, like Prosody, this issue is readily apparent. See, e.g., the options push_notification_with_body and push_notification_with_sender for https://modules.prosody.im/mod_cloud_notify
Re: FBI Extracted Deleted Signal Messages Saved in iPhone Notification Database
#17> Signal had been removed, but incoming notifications were preserved in internal memory Why are app notifications not part of app data that gets deleted on uninstall???
Notifications are not part of an app, it is a service provided by Apple/Google Most notifications are sent by backend servers straight to Apple/Google
Sort of. Apple's and Google's notifications infrastructure only delivers to signed applications. Even if you run your own IM server, you can't use your own open source client without building and signing it yourself, and then setting up the backend infrastructure, which requires using the developer certificate for the application to generate authentication credentials to Apple's and Google's notification service. IIUC (and I think as you point out) the way it works for XMPP is a client informs the server about its gateway, which will be run by the client publisher; when the XMPP server wants to generate a notification, it contacts that gateway which then pushes the notification through Apple's/Google's service API for delivery to the client. For a nominally self-hosted IM server, notifications are traversing two third parties, either of which might be logging the metadata, which may include the full body of a message, depending on the application's frontend and backend architecture and configuration.
So in a sense it is part of the application, especially if you're a small entity with a single app (as opposed to large entities like Facebook where you have dozens of applications under a complex hierarchy of developer and application certificates).
I can understand why things are done this way. It helps to avoid abuse and spam as there's no way to inject notifications without strict accountability. But it does kind of suck. To fully self-host IM, you need to build, sign, and distribute the client yourself, as well as run a notification gateway with the appropriate credentials. And I'm not aware of any plug-and-play open source solutions for the gateway, at least not for XMPP. (I could be mistaken, though.) Maybe Matrix servers have it builtin, but I wouldn't be surprised if they don't, especially the reference implementation, as this complexity provides a moat for monetization.
Re: FBI Extracted Deleted Signal Messages Saved in iPhone Notification Database
#18I think that https://molly.im/ is better than Signal Android.
Not if you want it to randomly lose its connection to signals servers and then fail to backup so you lose the ability to use Molly randomly when you least expect it and be completely dead in the water when you want to transfer your messages or reinstall it.
Re: FBI Extracted Deleted Signal Messages Saved in iPhone Notification Database
#19This is well known in the op-sec communities. iOS and Android notifications route through their servers and can be stored indefinitely (ie especially under a court order) You need to disable the content previews if you want to be secure. But even the notification metadata can be quite valuable to law enforcement (who is messaging you, what time of day, etc.) Also standard requirement on govt mobile devices to disable…
The article is specifically not referring to information that's sent to Apple servers - it's about information on the phone only, accessible through forensics tools with physical device access.
Signal's server-side push notifications only contain a "wakeup" message. The actual message popup is displayed after decrypting the message contents locally on the device. Of the things you mentioned, only the time of notification is visible to Apple/Google.
Re: FBI Extracted Deleted Signal Messages Saved in iPhone Notification Database
#20This is well known in the op-sec communities. iOS and Android notifications route through their servers and can be stored indefinitely (ie especially under a court order) You need to disable the content previews if you want to be secure. But even the notification metadata can be quite valuable to law enforcement (who is messaging you, what time of day, etc.) Also standard requirement on govt mobile devices to disable…
The article is specifically not referring to information that's sent to Apple servers - it's about information on the phone only, accessible through forensics tools with physical device access. Signal's server-side push notifications only contain a "wakeup" message. The actual message popup is displayed after decrypting the message contents locally on the device. Of the things you mentioned, only the time of notifica…
Fun fact, apps can't wake from APNS if the user killed the app (swipe up) last time instead of switching away normally. Apple publicly said something contrary to this at one point, so it might be surprising that Signal can work this way. The notification itself will still come through outside the app, so I wonder what you see, probably some placeholder text?