Telegram has rolled out an update to patch security vulnerabilities that a group of researchers highlighted recently with
the company’s MTProto protocol. Researchers from Royal Holloway, University of London analysed this encryption
protocol used by Telegram and also highlighted the flaws in its cloud chats method. The MTProto protocol is used when
users do not opt-in for end-to-end encryption (E2EE). Telegram has however, said it has rolled out updates to its app and they
“already contain the changes that make the four observations made by the researchers no longer relevant”.
In its latest blog post, Telegram acknowledged the vulnerabilities highlighted by the researchers and however said that the latest
version of its app comes with fixes for all the flaws mentioned. It further adds: “None of the changes were critical, as no
ways of deciphering or tampering with messages were discovered.”
While E2EE is the method for securing chats, Telegram also uses a protocol, which is MTProto to secure its
cloud chats. This is the company’s version of transport layer security (TLS) — a popular cryptographic standard meant
to ensure the security of data in transit. TLS protects Telegram users against man-in-the-middle (MITM) attacks to a
certain extent but does not stop servers from reading texts completely. One such flaw included the ability to re-order
messages and an attacker could use this vulnerability to manipulate Telegram bots.
The Flaw
The researchers also found a flaw that could allow hackers to extract plain text from encrypted messages. This flaw was
found in Android, iOS, and desktop versions of Telegram. Telegram notes that extracting text through the mentioned
flaw would require a significant amount of work by the hacker.
In any case, all of the flaws mentioned by the researchers are said to have been fixed with the latest update. If you use
Telegram, ensure that you are on the latest version by going into your device’s app store and installing the latest
update.
In any case, all of the flaws mentioned by the researchers are said to have been fixed with the latest update. If you use
Telegram, ensure that you are on the latest version by going into your device’s app store and also installing the latest
update.
By Cynthia N.
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