IT Security Stack Exchange
IT Security Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [whatsapp]

Whatsapp is a proprietary instant messaging client for smartphones

150 questions
6
votes
1 answer

Understanding a Whatsapp account hack (social engineering?)

A friend of mine (Bob) received a suspicious Whatsapp message today, seemingly from a former colleague (Alice), who claimed to have "forwarded [to Bob] an SMS with a code in it by mistake", and who was asking to send it back. Bob unfortunately sent…
Laurent S
  • 163
  • 6
6
votes
3 answers

Can a Government Intelligence Agency See *Who* I Am Messaging On WhatsApp

I have not been able to find this answer, because most of the talk is about the content of communications, but my question is: Can a government intelligence agency somehow see who I am communicating with over WhatsApp? So generally, I know if I…
lawdawg
  • 73
  • 1
  • 5
6
votes
1 answer

Can WhatsApp recover Google Drive backups if the phone is not connected to the original Google account?

Last week Brazilian news outlets reported a scam involving WhatsApp where an attacker could get access to an WhatsApp account by activating the target phone number on a different device in control of a scammer. A detailed report is available here…
Henrique Jung
  • 307
  • 1
  • 9
6
votes
1 answer

Sniffing WhatsApp Traffic

I was wondering if its possible to obtain private keys for Whatsapp to be able to sniff traffic between two WhatsApp Android devices (both under my control). I understand that WhatsApp traffic is now end-to-end-encrypted, and I have read their…
QPTR
  • 257
  • 2
  • 7
6
votes
2 answers

How does the Whatsapp web client synchronize with the mobile application keeping all E2E?

How is it possible to maintain an E2E communication while using the whatsapp web client? I've found different Q&A ( f.i. How does end to end encryption work with whatsapp web? ) but nobody completely resolved my doubts. How does the web client…
toomuchkafeine
  • 61
  • 1
  • 2
6
votes
1 answer

Private key storage for end2end encrypted messaging

I am familiar with asymmetrical encryption, private/public keys... I am wondering about the "new" trend coming from WhatsApp, Facebook, ... to have end to end message encryption. From my understanding, the device should generate the key pair…
Carlo
  • 163
  • 1
  • 4
6
votes
3 answers

If whatsapp has end-to-end encryption, How does it fight spam?

I was just going through whatsapp Terms and Service here: https://www.whatsapp.com/legal/ and found that they may work with Facebook to fight spam etc. How is it possible when Whatsapp servers cannot decrypt any messages.
Lance Reynolds
  • 61
  • 2
6
votes
2 answers

Why is whatsapp using 6 digit codes for verification?

My question is kind a simple. Why does whatsapp use 6 digit codes to verify the device? They could also use 5 or 7+ digits and or alphanumeric characters. Are there any reasons they chose exactly 6?
321
  • 69
  • 1
  • 1
  • 5
5
votes
1 answer

Free messaging (but not images, video, etc) on United Airlines free wifi: is it secure?

I recently flew with United Airlines and I used their free messaging wi-fi plan. I could text my friends on Whatsapp, but I could not send (nor receive) multimedia content like images, videos or audio clips. I'm wondering how this works and whether…
kYuZz
  • 153
  • 3
5
votes
1 answer

Can WhatsApp, Signal or Telegram be hacked through a SIM SWAP attack?

In Cuba the telecoms/ISP monopoly, Etecsa, works with the political police to spy on dissidents, journalists and others. A common attack in Cuba is therefore SIM Swapping which is easy for them. It is also effective in order to eavesdrop on phone…
Pedro
  • 51
  • 3
5
votes
1 answer

How can WhatsApp be listed on the EFF secure application toolset when it's not opensource?

I see this EFF tool guide, proposing WhatsApp as one of "our pick of the best, most secure applications" source. How can WhatsApp be trusted as a secure application when it is not open-source (according to Wikipedia: "license: freeware"), in…
Marinos An
  • 191
  • 6
5
votes
2 answers

A site supports Public key length of 256 bits while best practice is 1024+ - what does this mean?

Given that this is asymmetric cryptography with private/public key, I am not sure if reduced bit length is breakable easier than longer keys. I understand that the key population is reduced (hence randomness, hence brute force) however, I am still…
tazz
  • 53
  • 3
5
votes
2 answers

Whatsapp access to Google Drive

I am very concerned today as I discovered whatsapp has access to my google drive. Does this mean whatsapp can steal my google drive data with this access or is it restricted only to a specific folder?
SeanJ
  • 153
  • 1
  • 6
5
votes
2 answers

Is it possible to identify the source of message in whatsapp?

Is it possible to identify the real source of message in whatsapp? Scenario : Texting whatsapp message to a group,one of the group member forwards it to another and it goes on atlast one day it reaches me again. Questions : Now as a end user, I can…
BlueBerry - Vignesh4303
  • 5,107
  • 13
  • 34
  • 63
5
votes
1 answer

Wasn't WhatsApp messages already encrypted?

According to this article, which was written in 2014, WhatsApp had partnered with Open Whisper System to make its (text based) messages encrypted. So what's the big change now that Whatsapp's announcement that it now uses encryption keys? In what…
Celeritas
  • 10,039
  • 22
  • 77
  • 144
1 2
3
…
9 10