oss-sec mailing list archives
Re: tdesktop leaks user IP address
From: Daniel Kahn Gillmor <dkg () fifthhorseman net>
Date: Wed, 12 Sep 2018 09:33:19 -0400
Hi Dhiraj-- On Tue 2018-09-11 17:25:47 +0530, Dhiraj Mishra wrote:
tdesktop leaks user IP address This is still not fix in telegram desktop team says their is nothing to fix here and this is working has intended.
Thanks for this report -- it's good to have people looking at metadata leakage and considering it as a security concern. It is. However, i'm not convinced that you've described the problem you're seeing well enough to be actionable yet. In particular, it's not clear to me *whose IP address* you are concerned about leaking, and *where* you are concerned about it leaking. It's also not clear to me that you've evaluated the impact/consequences of your proposed mitigation. I've written out several questions below in the hopes of helping clarify the concern, and figuring out what makes sense to do about it. Please take these questions in the spirit of constructive engagement!
tdesktop: https://github.com/telegramdesktop/tdesktop *Steps to reproduce:* 1. ./Telegram 2. Call end user 3. The access log on CLI reveals the end user public IP address.
let's give the parties involved in this names so that it's easier to reason about. Let's say that the call Initiator is Inigo, and that the call recipient is Rebecca. So Inigo takes steps 1 and 2. Whose public IP address (Inigo's? Rebecca's?) leaks into which access log (Inigo's? Rebecca's? both?)? Is the concern really the inclusion of the IP address in the access log, or is it the fact that Rebecca's public IP address is visible to Inigo, and vice versa? To whom else is this IP address visible? Another way of asking this is: who is the adversary you're concerned about learning this IP address information? * someone looking at some specific logfile in the future? * the other party on the call during the call? (i.e. Inigo is Rebecca's adversary, and vice versa) * the Telegram server operator? * a network monitor inspecting traffic? * …
By default in tdesktop p2p is enable, which open a direct communication when calling to the other user, potentially seeing his/her IP. Telegram is supposedly is a secure messaging application but while calling another user leaks his/her public IP address in access log. However, by navigating to Settings and Privacy > Calls > and set P2P to `nobody` in telegram apps in (iOS and android) will not allow others to view public IP of end user, but this option is still not available in tdesktop, which makes tdesktop vulnerable to this issue.
Who needs to set P2P to "nobody" to have this change? If either party makes this choice is it sufficient for a given call? Presumably turning off P2P means routing the calls through a central server (perhaps via STUN/TURN or some other relay/proxy equivalent). If that's not the case, how are calls completed when P2P is disabled? Who operates that central server? What is the performance impact (on rates of successful connections, on latency during calls) of such a change? Is the central server operator already in a position to be able to force this shift from P2P to a centralized fallback? What cost(s) would they pay if they force this shift? How does the potential for centralized mass surveillance of call traffic change if all calls are routed through the central server by default? Regards, --dkg
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Current thread:
- tdesktop leaks user IP address Dhiraj Mishra (Sep 11)
- Re: tdesktop leaks user IP address Daniel Kahn Gillmor (Sep 12)