Arik’s Blog
Verifying WhatsApp’s End-To-End Encryption
A few days ago, WhatsApp announced that with the latest update, all their conversations would be end-to-end encrypted. I very briefly…examined a conversation which WhatsApp was showing me was encrypted. ¶ I asked the other party to send me a message, but I closed (force quit) WhatsApp first. As I’m running iOS, where apps cannot create daemons, it served the following purposes: ¶ The app would be unable to maintain any open TCP connections. ¶ The app would be unable to schedule local notifications. ¶ The app would be unable to do client-side decryption in the background ¶ The WhatsApp server would be forced to send me a…
Arik SosmanApr 6
Dealing With Your Phone’s Dormant Cyber Pathogen
You have most likely heard about the ongoing argument between Apple and the FBI, as well as the surrounding debate. Many people have…explained why they support one position or the other, so there is little value in me adding yet another opinion piece explaining my rationale. Instead, I would like to shed some light on who has what information, what they can or cannot do to access it, and how the technology protecting it works. ¶ It all started with the FBI asking Apple for help decrypting an iPhone they hold in their possession, and Apple publicly denying that request.Arik SosmanMar 6