Rust at Scale: An Added Layer of Security for WhatsApp

Post by mschuster91 » Wed, Jan 28, 2026, 8:31 PM UTC

londons_explore wrote: post #69

wongarsu wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

WhatsApp could exfiltrate messages at the ends. But I assume the trick lies in the word "default". Didn't Skype also default to end-to-end encryption, unless there was a server flag that disabled it for that specific user (I might be fuzzy on the details)

I don't trust un-auditable client applications... If you want to assure me your e2e is secure, there must be at least two clients implemented by different people, with at least one of them opensource. Whatsapp used to have this, but lately they have cracked down on third party clients.

Post by miki123211 » Wed, Jan 28, 2026, 8:33 PM UTC

usrusr wrote: post #18

pjmlp wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, doesn't look like to me, and a plain ESP32 with a touch screen would do the job for displaying a weight bar with plus, minus and reset count buttons.

And then you get to a cardio unit where you want a completely different set of features and have to start over. Going lean on hardware only makes sense when you push out a very high number of units, when you have to deal with battery constraints or when you just have a lot of intertia, the combination of existing codebase and developer filter skillset.

Post by jolmg » Wed, Jan 28, 2026, 8:35 PM UTC

Fripplebubby wrote: post #48

4gotunameagain wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every encryption is end to end if you're not picky about the ends, or metadata. Do you trust facebook (excuse me, meta) to not snoop on your messages, and to not share them with the "intelligence" agencies ?

This is not true. The IETF draft is explicit that E2EE means that the message cannot be read by any party other than the sender and the intended receiver. When companies like Meta claim they support E2EE, this is what they claim. There are no tricky semantics or legalese at play here.

Post by jerf » Wed, Jan 28, 2026, 8:48 PM UTC

g947o wrote: post #57

jerf wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The major problem with sticking an Android tablet on to exercise equipment is the difference in life spans. Android tablets are generally going to last you 4-5 years. Weight equipment should be able to last decades. There is some simple & cheap hardware that can last decades, but it is legitimately harder to program. Even worse was an article some months back about Android tablets hooked to heating & cooling systems…

> Weight equipment should be able to last decades. "should" or "actually can"? Do you have references to show that's the actual lifespan of the equipment, mechanically?

Post by metaltyphoon » Wed, Jan 28, 2026, 8:59 PM UTC

galangalalgol wrote: post #68

surajrmal wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They didn't but keep in mind that the app is currently 170MiB. The standard library shouldn't have added more than a few hundred kilobytes. They already likely pay similar costs for c++, but it's more worthwhile as they have a lot more c++ code total. Also note that if you statically link to the rust std library, lto will excise the majority of it anyways, no need to rebuild it.

The default hello world stripped with one codegen unit and panic=abort was 342kB both nightly and stable. Adding lto dropped it 42kB in stable and 40kB in nightly. Adding build-std and only building core did not reduce it any further in size.