Here we go again. Yet another security vulnerability has been uncovered in the popular photo and video messaging app Snapchat. Researchers have discovered a flaw that makes it possible for hackers to perform denial-of-service type attacks on any number of individual users, rendering their smartphone momentarily unusable.
Hackers can, in a relatively easy manner, recycle encryption tokens used to verify the destination of a particular message to bombard unsuspecting users with thousands of “snaps” in a matter of seconds. This overload of incoming data overwhelms the processing capabilities of an iPhone, first causing it to become slow and unresponsive before forcing a restart.
If a hacker is feeling particularly malicious, the attack could continue ad nauseam, making the phone useless. This is the same style of attack used by groups like Anonymous to overload web servers and run targeted sites offline.
Snapchat has had a rough couple of months when it comes to security. At the beginning of the year, a massive leak exposed the personal information of millions of users. The leak was followed by a noticeable increase in spam messages, which the company attempted to remedy through a strong verification process during signup. That verification, however, was easily cracked.
As for the potential threat of DoS attacks? Snapchat was oblivious to the issue at the time it was first reported.
[via LATimes]
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TAGS: Snapchat
