{"id":42474,"date":"2015-04-14T06:00:41","date_gmt":"2015-04-14T13:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.mcafee.com\/?p=42474"},"modified":"2025-08-31T22:48:47","modified_gmt":"2025-09-01T05:48:47","slug":"your-secrets-arent-safe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mcafee.com\/blogs\/mobile-security\/your-secrets-arent-safe\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Secret Chat’ Messages Aren\u2019t So Secret After All"},"content":{"rendered":"

The universal truth about secrets? They almost always tend to get leaked. This was the case for a cross-platform messaging app<\/a>, which flaunted the privacy offered by a \u201cSecret Chats\u201d messaging feature.<\/p>\n

This messaging app describes itself as a privacy-oriented app, intended for sending encrypted personal or business secrets without storing them to memory. However, as one security researcher discovered<\/a>, this could not be further from the truth.<\/p>\n

The secret chat feature was designed to be a one-on-one chat where all messages sent back and forth were encrypted<\/a> with a key known only by the chat\u2019s participants. Theoretically, no third parties could access or unencrypt the content without first obtaining one of the chat participant\u2019s devices.<\/p>\n

Upon closer inspection, it can be seen that these supposedly \u201csecret\u201d messages are copied and stored in plain text on a cache database on the device. So, anyone with access to the device could easily read them from the phone\u2019s memory.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s even scarier is that it was also found that any deleted messages from the chat were in fact not actually deleted from the app\u2019s memory. Although a message may appear to be deleted from the conversation, it is not truly gone and still lives on in the cached files.<\/p>\n

The lesson to learn here? While encryption is a wonderful thing, there is a right and wrong way to approach it. Only encrypting one element of an app does little for security\u2019s sake. Complete end-to-end encryption<\/a> is needed to ensure that your messages are safe from prying eyes.<\/p>\n

Tips to Protect Your Sensitive, Personal Information<\/h2>\n

While mobile messaging apps work to implement stronger security practices, there are a few steps you can take to ensure the protection of sensitive, personal information:<\/p>\n