Telegram’s new “People Near You” feature poses a security risk

Telegram’s new “People Nearby” feature shows a list of other nearby users and their approximate proximity to you create group chats based on geographic location. The feature is disabled by default and must be manually enabled by the user, but is an idiosyncratic addition to an application that is marketed as a private end-to-end encrypted messaging service, and according to security researcher Ahmed Hassan, major security risk.

Users can fake their geographical location in Telegram by opening them to possible scams. “Many scammers damage their location and try to sell fake investments in bitcoins, hacking tools, SSNs that are used for unemployment fraud, etc. The amount of illegal activities I saw there make Silkroad it looks like the fans were running it, ”Hassan explained inside a recent blog post.

Even worse, he identified Hassan a defect in the Near People function that could leave bad actors triangulate the exact location of other application users by using two accounts with false addresses.

This opens users to hackers, persecution or worse, and Telegram has not announced any plans to solve the problem. Hassan reported the vulnerability to Telegram, but the company says it will not be fixed. In fact, Telegram told Hassan that the discovery of a user’s specific location is an “expected” result of the Close People feature in certain cases. The response has no character for an encrypted messaging application that sells itself privacy features. Even adding a more detailed warning that other users might find your location accurate would be helpful, but that doesn’t seem to be the case either.

To be fair, Telegram is generally more secure than other chat applications, and since Nearby People is off by default, that it may not seem serious subject. However, users may inadvertently activate the feature, thinking that they are simply conveying their general closeness to another person and not its exact location. Yes value your privacy, don’t do it use the Telegram Nearby People feature.

[TechRadar]