They discover new vulnerabilities in the Viber messaging app

Even though communication app Viber should be at one of its sweetest moments after being acquired by Internet shopping giant Rakuten, new shadows hang over its head. Problems that, unfortunately, are not the first time, plague this application and, more specifically, its users, whose privacy could be in danger if they are not modified and They protect the channels through which Viber sends the information of the conversations.

This time it was the New Heaven University in Connecticut, USA, who discovered new security flaws. Issues that, as some Spanish researchers had already discovered, center on the lack of message encryption that users of this tool exchange with each other. However, to this must be added the lack of a authentication protocol on the application servers and the storage that is made of user information in them. Points that can have important consequences, jeopardizing both the privacy and the security of the user.

In this way, any information sent via Viber could be intercepted and read without difficulty by third partiesOf course, as long as you have the necessary knowledge and tools. But this means being able to access the message information, knowing the photos that are exchanged, the videosand even the location. Details that would make more than one user's hair stand on end. And they seem like beginner's problems.

But what is really remarkable is that researchers at this university have also found other problems related to the servers of the application. That is, the computers and pathways through which user information circulates. Thus, it has been known that there is no authentication, allowing hackers and third parties to access them to capture all the information and be able to do other misdeeds. And even more, instead of eliminating the information that passes through these points to its recipients, it is stored in themSomething that gives intruders more possibilities to get hold of all kinds of data and user details.

Apparently Viber is already working on fixing these issues in a few updates that are coming to Android and iOS, the main platforms. However, there is a question as to what will happen in the meantime with the rest of the users. According to the media PhoneArena, the application company claims not having been alerted by any user who has been affected by any of these vulnerabilities or issues

Undoubtedly, a problem to take into account, even more so after the spying scandals, but also for the protection of the users themselves, whose privacy may be exposed. At the moment it is best to do not send sensitive information through this tool until new updates arrive and it is verified that they are totally safe for the sending of messages, drawings, photos or the location