rexsceleratorum

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rexsceleratorum
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  • Astoundingly unsafe iMessage bridge Sunbird is back, and you still shouldn't use it

    rexsceleratorumrexsceleratorum
    payeco said:
    rexsceleratorum said:
    Apple could've made an app for Android years ago and made chats secure for iPhone users by not sending anything over SMS. But surprise surprise, they don't actually care about users' privacy more than they care about their bottom line by locking in American teenagers who don't want to be outcasts. The latter being a problem which does not exist outside of the US, because everyone uses Whatsapp or similar instead of texting. 
    I’ll never understand this mindset. Why is it Apple’s responsibility to make messaging better on someone else’s platform? You can dance around it all you want but that is what you’re saying. 
    I am telling you how Apple could have made messaging better on Apple's platform. By not having to send messages over unsecured SMS to Android users. Remember that the topic is end-to-end encryption of iMessage chats, which is currently not true with the SMS fallback, Sunbird or not.

    Interoperability is a feature that benefits Apple users as much as anyone, so I interpret hostility to it as cult mentality. 

    Messaging is not worse on Android, and no one is pining for iMessage outside of the US, the latter being where Apple is a party to bullying teenagers into buying iPhones. 
    muthuk_vanalingam

  • Astoundingly unsafe iMessage bridge Sunbird is back, and you still shouldn't use it

    rexsceleratorumrexsceleratorum
    AppleInsider said:

    "It is important to note that while messages were temporarily stored in the Firebase database, they were deleted either upon download from the front end app, or automatically after 24 hours," it says. "Further, at no time was any unauthorized user ever able to access or read any messages sent or received through Sunbird by another user."

    [...]

    Except what has not changed, what will never change, and what is entirely ignored in Sunbird's announcements, is that it still requires a valid iCloud username and password.

    A user can create a throwaway Apple ID to use Sunbird, so having to provide credentials is not necessarily a real risk. This is also why this app is not a "hack", it just uses the iMessage protocol with valid credentials. 

    The company seems to be admitting that their service previously didn't encrypt end-to-end, ie, the messages were decoded and temporarily stored at a server while waiting for the user to come online, and this presented a potential risk. Not the end of the world. 

    charlesn said:
    But if you think green bubbles are a problem, that's a YOU problem. And it's pathetic.
    Except Apple currently falls back to unencrypted and unsecured SMS to send and receive those green bubbles, and it is not obvious which is less secure, trusting Sunbird with encryption, or trusting unencrypted SMS. 

    Apple could've made an app for Android years ago and made chats secure for iPhone users by not sending anything over SMS. But surprise surprise, they don't actually care about users' privacy more than they care about their bottom line by locking in American teenagers who don't want to be outcasts. The latter being a problem which does not exist outside of the US, because everyone uses Whatsapp or similar instead of texting. 
    muthuk_vanalingam