Keybase is a web-based service that makes it easy to incorporate cryptographic keys into online identities with proofs. Introducing KeybaseĬryptography is complicated but you don’t need advanced technical skills to take advantage of its benefits. By using cryptography it is possible to verify our identities beyond all doubt, and so if we can link cryptographic proofs to the websites and social media accounts that we own then we can prove irrefutably that they are ours. The need to prove the authenticity of one’s identity is not a new problem in the world of information security and solutions exist to help prove that the users and services really are who they claim to be. So how can Twitter account users verify their identities and proved that their accounts are authentically theirs? The inability to prove identity and authenticity without a blue tick makes it hard to deal with fakes.įortunately help is at hand. Without verification, how do I know that a particular account really does belong to the person or organisation who claims to own it? Blue ticks made this a little clearer but without them it is much easier for fake and impersonation accounts to flourish. One of the most obvious ones is around authentic identity. Keybase is owned by Zoom and currently has almost half a million privacy-focused users.Twitter’s recent decision to remove blue check marks from accounts it has previously verified causes a number of issues for the platform and its users. John Jackson and researchers at Sakura Samurai including Aubrey Cottle, Jackson Henry, and Robert Willis have identified a critical vulnerability in the Keybase app that puts the privacy of Windows, macOS, and Linux users at risk. The app is regarded as one of the best for encrypted communication. This feature-rich app offers comprehensive privacy and security. However, Jackson reported in the company’s latest report that the bug could compromise Keybase users’ privacy. Bug Affects Keybase App’s Picture Storing MechanismĪccording to Jackson and his team, the bug carries the identifier CVE-2021-23827. It impacts the app’s cleartext image storing cache and is found in all desktop versions of the app across all platforms, including Windows, Mac, and Linux. In the Keybase app, under normal circumstances, after deleting a picture or enabling the explode feature, which activates time-based deletion of images, the pictures are expected to be wiped from the app’s cache. However, despite showing them as deleted, the pictures were neither removed on the local cache nor from the “uploadtemps” directories due to the bug. This means the images were still retrievable in cleartext format.Īccording to a blog post published by researchers, the bug also prevents the “uploadtemps” folder from getting immediately wiped, as it usually happens. Recovered and unencrypted image on WindowsImage: John J Hacking Typically, the folder remains alive on the local storage until the image uploading action lasts. If an attacker can establish local access on the device, they can easily access files, which the user believes have been deleted on Keybase. This could be detrimental for privacy-focused users as the primary reason they picked up Keybase is to keep their data secure from authoritarian regimes. The flaw in Keybase was identified during Zoom’s bug-hunting program after it acquired the project in May 2020. The flaw was reported to Zoom and fixed in Keybase 5.6.0 for Windows and Keybase 5.6.1 for macOS and Linux. The patches were released on 23 January 2021, so if you are still using the old version, immediately update your Keybase client. Flaws in deleted keybase kept chat update# For discovering this flaw, the Sakura Samurai team received a $1,000 bug bounty. “Zoom takes privacy and security very seriously and appreciates vulnerability reports from researchers. We addressed the issue identified by the Sakura Samurai researchers on our Keybase platform in version 5.6.0 for Windows and macOS and version 5.6.1 for Linux,” Zoom’s spokesperson told. Flaws in deleted keybase kept chat windows#įlaws in deleted keybase kept chat windows#.Flaws in deleted keybase kept chat update#.
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