Technical analysis of the Signal clone used by Trump officials

Post by Cthulhu_ » Tue, May 06, 2025, 11:28 AM UTC

mycatisblack wrote: post #305

matsemann wrote: post #256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FWIW, I never clicked into this when I originally saw it because I'm not that interested in a "technical analysis", but gained interest when the other title said that the app was hacked. To me, that's worth discussing, but here that lede is a bit buried. And I now only know about it because a friend sent me the link. I do feel there's a pattern of me reading some interesting tech news, then thinking "wait, why didn't…

As a non-native English understander, I find it funny that discussions related to politics are “flagged”. I.e. carrying a flag.

Post by 9cb14c1ec0 » Tue, May 06, 2025, 11:39 AM UTC

namdnay wrote: post #113

abhisek wrote: post #72

Still trying to grasp the idea of archiving messages from E2E encrypted communication system into a storage that entirely breaks the purpose of using something like Signal. It’s like encashing on the trust of Signal protocol, app while breaking its security model so that someone else can search through all messages. What am I missing here?

> What am I missing here? OK, say you're a bank. The SEC states you need to keep archives of every discussion your traders have with anyone at any time (I'm simplifying things but you get the point). You keep getting massive fines because traders were whatsapping about deals So now you've got several options - you can use MS Teams, which of course offers archival, compliance monitoring etc. But that means trusting MS…

Post by mbreese » Tue, May 06, 2025, 11:52 AM UTC

dang wrote: post #298

jofzar wrote: post #287

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Imo it's a brand new thing so it deserves this technical analysis, the follow up also deserves its own post because of its both importance and political/security nature (government app attacked). It would be if Google announced Gmail and there was a technical analysis and then it was hacked the same day, I would hope there would be a post for that.

See https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43896978 for why we didn't do that. Short version: it's not possible to have separate discussions in the way you describe. They would just get totally blended. I like your Gmail analogy but I don't think it applies here. The "technical analysis" article is driven by the same political/security concerns as the "hacked" update.

Post by Cthulhu_ » Tue, May 06, 2025, 12:29 PM UTC

lesuorac wrote: post #212

mdhb wrote: post #3

The big part of this story which nobody is talking about is the fact that the app is literally controlled by a bunch of “former” Israeli intelligence officers. Who now have what is arguably the worlds most valuable access out of anyone.

I know it's pretty fun to do the espionage angle with this comment. But is this really just evidence that a mandatory draft is actually good economic policy? Having a forced networking event where a bunch of similar skilled individual meet each other seems to be producing a ton of economic value for Israel.

Post by immibis » Tue, May 06, 2025, 12:32 PM UTC

namdnay wrote: post #217

Zak wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Signal client app is open source; it's probably not reasonable to describe a modified version as "cracked". Signal does discourage the use of modified clients for security reasons, but does not actively block most of them.

You’re right for Signal! Their WhatsApp client, however… that’s definitely “cracked”