• Russian Activists have their Telegram accounts accessed by external party
    7 replies, posted
All of what I'm quoting is done by Google Translate (source provided for original at bottom) [quote]"Opposition activists have complained of hacking Telegram from the same IP-address Employee Foundation fighting corruption George Alburi and opposition activist Oleg Kozlovsky received reports that their accounts in the Telegram messenger used without their knowledge. According to the report, access to accounts and Alburova Kozlowski was received with the same the IP-addresses in New York. Both say they have not received any requests that their account is used on the new computer - only notification of suspicious login. [/quote source: [url]https://meduza.io/news/2016/04/29/aktivisty-oppozitsii-pozhalovalis-na-vzlom-telegram-s-odnogo-ip-adresa[/url] A tweet from one of the activists: [media]https://twitter.com/alburov/status/725939782191206402?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw[/media] Google translation: [quote]"Someone broke into the night telegrams that I would. I wonder how this is possible? SMS via MTS intercepted?"[/quote] Here is also a facebook post from one of the activists: [url]https://www.facebook.com/kozlovsky/posts/10208948934790884[/url] (According to Cypherpunks mailing list the IP address belongs to a known TOR exit node)
[QUOTE=icarusfoundyou;50230844] (According to Cypherpunks mailing list the IP address belongs to a known TOR exit node)[/QUOTE] I was going to guess a proxy but that works too.
Confirms that mobile authentification is bullshit. What had happened: Cellular provider MTS turns off SMS retrieval for that guy. In 15 minutes somebody requests new device authorization. Next SMS with authorization code is intercepted by MTS and hijackers use it to authorize their device. After a while MTS turns SMS retrieval back on. Later MTS refuses to explain why turning on and turning off happened in the first place. Considering that Oleg is an opposition activist fighting corruption and MTS being on the biggest cellular providers in Russia it was likely done via the request of some public authority.
[QUOTE=shott;50231015]Confirms that mobile authentification is bullshit. What had happened: Cellular provider MTS turns off SMS retrieval for that guy. In 15 minutes somebody requests new device authorization. Next SMS with authorization code is intercepted by MTS and hijackers use it to authorize their device. After a while MTS turns SMS retrieval back on. Later MTS refuses to explain why turning on and turning off happened in the first place. Considering that Oleg is an opposition activist fighting corruption and MTS being on the biggest cellular providers in Russia it was likely done via the request of some public authority.[/QUOTE] From what I've read they had 2FA disabled (you can supposedly get it on telegram and it uses a password on top of SMS verification) and the "external party" gained access by manipulating their phone numbers.
[QUOTE=shott;50231015]Confirms that mobile authentification is bullshit. What had happened: Cellular provider MTS turns off SMS retrieval for that guy. In 15 minutes somebody requests new device authorization. Next SMS with authorization code is intercepted by MTS and hijackers use it to authorize their device. After a while MTS turns SMS retrieval back on. Later MTS refuses to explain why turning on and turning off happened in the first place. Considering that Oleg is an opposition activist fighting corruption and MTS being on the biggest cellular providers in Russia it was likely done via the request of some public authority.[/QUOTE] For most people mobile authentication is more than sufficient. The person wanting to gain access needs both the password and to be able to redirect SMS messages. Almost no one in the world would have access to the latter.
Except for the cellular provider.
[QUOTE=shott;50231729]Except for the cellular provider.[/QUOTE] Or people who can force the cellular provider to obey their will. Or someone who can manipulate the sending of the SMS.
They need to both know the password, be able to manipulate the cellular provider or sniff the GSM packets. I doubt they manipulated the SMS sending itself.
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