Hackers can intercept unencrypted traffic over Wi-Fi if the victim is in a public place, a so-called man-in-the-middle attack. Other applications didn't encrypt the chat logs on the server, he added.Īnother significant finding is how many of the applications either don't use SSL/TLS (Secure Sockets Layer/Transport Security Layer) or insecurely use it, which involves using digital certificates to encrypt data traffic, Baggili said. 'Anyone who gets access to your phone can dump the backup and see all the chat messages that were sent back and forth,' he said. That poses a risk if someone loses their device, Baggili said. Many applications also didn't encrypt chat logs on the device, including OoVoo, Kik, Nimbuzz and MeetMe. The services should either ensure the images are quickly deleted from their servers or that only authenticated users can get access, he said. There's no authentication,' Baggili said.

But the problem is that if 'anybody gets access to this link, it means they can get access to the image that was sent. Those services were storing the content with plain 'http' links, which were then forwarded to the recipients. They found the same problem in applications such as OoVoo, MessageMe, Tango, Grindr, HeyWire and TextPlus when photos were sent from one user to another.

That revealed how and where applications were storing and transmitting data.įacebook's Instagram application, for example, still had images sitting on its servers that were unencrypted and accessible without authentication.

The researchers used traffic analysis tools such as Wireshark and NetworkMiner to see what data was exchanged when certain actions were performed. 'What we really find is that app developers are pretty sloppy,' said Ibrahim Baggili, UNHcFREG's director and editor-in-chief of the Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law, in a phone interview.

Read nimbuzz chat log forensics