Is Whatsapp Secure?

[vissarix]

Hey guys, im wondering if i send messages or make calls on whatsapp are they secure? I mean does the police intercept them easily?

 

[zinfamous]

Who you planning to threaten/shoot?

 

[dabuddha]

Who you planning to threaten/shoot?

This. Better yet, don't tell me

 

[vissarix]

Who you planning to threaten/shoot?

Its for a good cause

 

[zinfamous]

Its for a good cause

Like selling me drugs kind of good cause, or what in most states is considered statutory rape kind of "good cause"?

It's your asking about the police, you see.

 

[Rifter]

They got bought by facebook so thats a big NO.

 

[deadlyapp]

Is it encrypted? Yes. Can it probably be intercepted or read with a court order? Yes.

 

[HomerJS]

Don't they take your phone number?

 

[Platypus]

Yes, if both ends are electing to use end to end encryption. This is wildly dependent on your threat model though. Is your phone number important to keep hidden for you? You need to evaluate your personal situation and make some choices/compromises.

It uses the same underlying protocol as Signal, which I would recommend to you instead if you're asking this question.

There are a few tradeoffs to consider, but the code behind the underlying cryptographic components both of those apps use is public and considered by many to be the standard to measure against.

Those apps are only as safe as your phone is though... your messages are safe in transit but they're decrypted on the client side with both apps, so keep that in mind. You may wish to take advantage of the disappearing messages feature in Signal.

 

[vissarix]

Im in Italy so they are definitely not on par with the US type of interception and such...Consider that famous mafious take years to get caught, 43 years for Bernardo Provenzano for example, not very brilliant i would say...Definitely they wont put that kind of effort on every other illegal activity etc...

My guess is that if whatsapp have any kind of encryption that would be enough...

 

[Platypus]

Im in Italy so they are definitely not on par with the US type of interception and such...Consider that famous mafious take years to get caught, 43 years for Bernardo Provenzano for example, not very brilliant i would say...Definitely they wont put that kind of effort on every other illegal activity etc...

My guess is that if whatsapp have any kind of encryption that would be enough...

Interception is not really a concern with either of the apps I mentioned, assuming you select end to end encryption for BOTH parties in WhatsApp and your first interaction with the person you're talking to is over a secure channel, ie you are sitting next to your friend to verify that they received your initial message. There is an option in settings to notify you if your key changes with someone you're talking to that you should turn on as well. In Signal you can verify someone's key in person as well. From there, interception is not as much of a concern for you as your device itself being compromised through some other means.

I would be much more concerned about your mobile OS version/phone model than with your traffic being inspected/intercepted personally, for this specific case.

 

[vissarix]

I would be much more concerned about your mobile OS version/phone model than with your traffic being inspected/intercepted personally, for this specific case.

Im using a samsung s8 with custom rom android oreo 8.0...its debloated but i dont know if that helps...i do not share any data and gps is always off unless i need it for google maps

 

[Platypus]

Im using a samsung s8 with custom rom android oreo 8.0...its debloated but i dont know if that helps...i do not share any data and gps is always off unless i need it for google maps

If your threat model involves physical access to the device, you are definitely boned with that setup just FYI. International models of Samsung devices especially. Otherwise that's a relatively up to date (for most standards laff) version of Android so less worry of remote compromise. Also there's almost zero chance you looked at the code you were flashing directly to your device itself which runs with complete privs, so your expectation of security is a bit thin there to begin with honestly. WhatsApp being compromised would be the least of my concerns on that setup.

 

[radhak]

Yes,WhatsApp has end-to-end encryption since last year, and it's not configurable: it's on by default, and you cannot turn it off. So I guess it's more secure than any other mode of conversing: email or texting or messaging.

I am guessing for all sorts of low profile shady work, you are secure from the law if using WhatsApp. I wouldn't put much store to that confidence for bigly bad things (murder? terrorism?) - I'm sure pressure from the right levels of law/government could push Whatsapp to snoop on or betray you.
Of course they claim otherwise: https://www.independent.co.uk/life-...ges-security-government-privacy-a6970101.html

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Enough "secure" things are shown after a few years to be insecure that you should probably just assume nothing is secure.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I would not trust anything on a phone as being secure. The phone ecosystems these days are all designed around data collection so even if Whatsapp itself is secure, you don't know what's going on with the data (ex: your voice) before it even reaches the application and gets encrypted. Facebook, Google, etc are more than likely listening to your voice and generating metadata to sell to advertisers. I have seen plenty of times where relevant ads pop up based on IRL conversations or actions. Even if you somehow disable the mic, the accelerometer is actually sensitive enough to pickup voice through vibrations.

If you're looking for secure voice chat I would look at some kind of voip setup that is self hosted, and then having the traffic go through an OpenVPN tunnel. Only allow IPs you trust to connect to the OpenVPN server. (let's not forget heartbleed - there could potentially be other exploits like that which are not discovered yet)

 

[ultimatebob]

Two way encrypted communication isn't going to help you if someone is taking a screenshot of the other guy's phone screen remotely because it's got remote management software on it. Just saying.

 

[Cappuccino]

ofc it is. I post my nudes and deal wine gums to my peepz. No leaks nothing. It's safe.

 

[Crono]

^ you can trust cappuccino. Top level security expert for MI5

 

[Captante]

You know whats 100% secure?

Keep the information 100% in your head and divulge only to your maker.

Otherwise anything can (in theory at least) be hacked.

 

[RossMAN]

^ you can trust cappuccino. Top level security expert for MI5

Hmmn do I trust her or Richard Armitage?

 

[Cynthia Martinez]

whatsapp is a widely used app globally, i think it's a secure app.

 

[UsandThem]

whatsapp is a widely used app globally, i think it's a secure app.

20 months later, now we know.

 

[amdhunter]

whatsapp is a widely used app globally, i think it's a secure app.

My FBI guy assures me that Whatsapp is safe and to continue using it.

 

[Captante]