4 ms·

Agreed. The French government did exactly this!

DocTomoe 7y ago
... and it failed almost instantly. https://techcrunch.com/2019/04/19/security-flaw-in-french-government-messaging-app-exposed-confidential-conversations/ https://techcrunch.com/2019/04/19/security-flaw-in-french-go...
- devoply 7y ago
  Does not look like it. Looks like they found a flaw and fixed it. And this sort of thing, using open source project and building custom projects for private communication between private entities makes perfect sense. Anyone would be a fool to use Whatsapp for any conversations you don't want private companies and Western governments to have access to.
- xtreak29 7y ago
  This was an issue with Python's email parser. Relevant issue : https://bugs.python.org/issue34155 https://bugs.python.org/issue34155
  - vqdwj 7y ago
    If WhatsApp had a similar issue because of some 3rd party software they rely on I'm sure nobody would give them a free pass.
    - addicted 7y ago
      WhatsApp probably has bugs like these discovered on a monthly basis, that we never even hear about. The only time we hear about bugs with non OS software is when there is a masssive breach, FB initially reveals it only affects a small number of people, a few weeks later quietly revised that to a few 10s of million, and then a couple of months later buried somewhere that it was actually hundreds of millions of users affected.
- FAKEDETECTOR 7y ago
  It seems like you want to suggest that Matrix is not secure - as others pointed out already the bug that was reported about has nothing to do with matrix and was fixed quickly. Also you do not seem to understand that bugs and resulting security problems are something that happen every day - and get fixed quickly, usually, after discovery. This is what they mean when domain experts say things like "security is a process". Also here we see a perfect example of why you want to use open source software for all governmental software: after a bug was found your admins can see the code changes and understand, if the bug still exists or not. Even more, only with open source software your admins and developers can read the code and search for bugs, too! This is what makes open source software a very good idea! You are welcome to the world of free and open software, and after some reading about the basic principles I am sure you will understand why open source software is used by so many companies and organizations around the world. BTW re the website you pointed to: I see a very annoying, totally absurd cookie dialog that makes me click at least five times and still does not give me a choice to not accept cookies at all. Please do not link to that website until they wake up and stop insulting visitors with this UI nightmare and learned that nobody needs to set cookies to publish content. Also this is not a website a pro developer would ever read or point to - always prefer to point to the primary source of information.
  - DocTomoe 7y ago
    The goal was to provide a secure whatsapp alternative for he French administration. They failed the "secure" part - nothing else matters, and that does not mean that rolling your own should be discouraged - it means that these things are hard, and chances are your pet project will be less secure than established systems. > Please do not link to that website until they wake up and stop insulting visitors with this UI nightmare Had I known that this happend for your UA, I would not have - worked like a charm on my side. Thank the French for that, who are the main reason behind the EU legislation about Cookies. > Also this is not a website a pro developer would ever read or point to Gatekeeping, are we? "Pro developers" don't waste time searching for some obscure original source for a meaningless online discussion - they pick the first result of their favorite search engine.
    - 7y ago

... and it failed almost instantly. https://techcrunch.com/2019/04/19/security-flaw-in-french-government-messaging-app-exposed-confidential-conversations/ https://techcrunch.com/2019/04/19/security-flaw-in-french-go...

devoply 7y ago
Does not look like it. Looks like they found a flaw and fixed it. And this sort of thing, using open source project and building custom projects for private communication between private entities makes perfect sense. Anyone would be a fool to use Whatsapp for any conversations you don't want private companies and Western governments to have access to.
xtreak29 7y ago
This was an issue with Python's email parser. Relevant issue : https://bugs.python.org/issue34155 https://bugs.python.org/issue34155
- vqdwj 7y ago
  If WhatsApp had a similar issue because of some 3rd party software they rely on I'm sure nobody would give them a free pass.
  - addicted 7y ago
    WhatsApp probably has bugs like these discovered on a monthly basis, that we never even hear about. The only time we hear about bugs with non OS software is when there is a masssive breach, FB initially reveals it only affects a small number of people, a few weeks later quietly revised that to a few 10s of million, and then a couple of months later buried somewhere that it was actually hundreds of millions of users affected.
FAKEDETECTOR 7y ago
It seems like you want to suggest that Matrix is not secure - as others pointed out already the bug that was reported about has nothing to do with matrix and was fixed quickly. Also you do not seem to understand that bugs and resulting security problems are something that happen every day - and get fixed quickly, usually, after discovery. This is what they mean when domain experts say things like "security is a process". Also here we see a perfect example of why you want to use open source software for all governmental software: after a bug was found your admins can see the code changes and understand, if the bug still exists or not. Even more, only with open source software your admins and developers can read the code and search for bugs, too! This is what makes open source software a very good idea! You are welcome to the world of free and open software, and after some reading about the basic principles I am sure you will understand why open source software is used by so many companies and organizations around the world. BTW re the website you pointed to: I see a very annoying, totally absurd cookie dialog that makes me click at least five times and still does not give me a choice to not accept cookies at all. Please do not link to that website until they wake up and stop insulting visitors with this UI nightmare and learned that nobody needs to set cookies to publish content. Also this is not a website a pro developer would ever read or point to - always prefer to point to the primary source of information.
- DocTomoe 7y ago
  The goal was to provide a secure whatsapp alternative for he French administration. They failed the "secure" part - nothing else matters, and that does not mean that rolling your own should be discouraged - it means that these things are hard, and chances are your pet project will be less secure than established systems. > Please do not link to that website until they wake up and stop insulting visitors with this UI nightmare Had I known that this happend for your UA, I would not have - worked like a charm on my side. Thank the French for that, who are the main reason behind the EU legislation about Cookies. > Also this is not a website a pro developer would ever read or point to Gatekeeping, are we? "Pro developers" don't waste time searching for some obscure original source for a meaningless online discussion - they pick the first result of their favorite search engine.
  - 7y ago