Cybercriminals have been observed targeting a recently disclosed vulnerability in the GO SMS Pro messaging application to steal user data.
The issue, Trustwave revealed a couple of weeks ago, is that users’ media messages are stored insecurely on a publicly accessible server, exposing them to unauthenticated attackers.
Whenever a user attempts to send a media file, Trustwave’s SpiderLabs security researchers discovered, the application would generate a URL that can be easily guessed and which does not require authentication to access the shared media.
Minor scripting can be used to target the unprotected media files and exfiltrate them, and Trustwave now says that threat actors are publicly sharing tools and scripts exploiting the bug.
“Several popular tools are updating daily and on their third or fourth revision. We’ve also seen underground forums sharing images downloaded from GO SMS servers directly,” Trustwave says.
Not all media can be linked to specific users, but some of the shared images and videos do include people’s faces, names, and other identifying characteristics, thus representing a major privacy breach.
Another issue that Trustwave underlined was the app developer’s unwillingness to cooperate with its researchers to address the security hole.
However, it appears that the developer did attempt to address the issue, an application version uploaded to Google Play on November 23 reveals. However, analysis of the app showed that a complete fix hasn’t been deployed yet.
The developer initially disabled the option to send media files using the app. Soon after, the capability was re-enabled, although the media did not appear to be delivered to the recipient.
“Despite these half fixes, we can confirm that older media used to verify the original vulnerability is still available. That includes quite a bit of sensitive data like driver’s licenses, health insurance account numbers, legal documents, and of course, pictures of a more ‘romantic’ nature,” Trustwave says.
SecurityWeek has once again attempted to contact GO SMS Pro’s developer for an official comment on the matter but received no reply as of yet.
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