Vulnerabilities in Sogou Keyboard encryption expose keypresses to network eavesdropping.
I live in China and this software is cancerous not just in the encryption failure, it also nestles into a computer like a trojan. Creates 2 fallback installations and will reinstall itself after removal if you reboot in between, unless you get rid of all 3 installations at once, where they are deliberately trying to obfuscate the uninstall button (triple confirmation, swapping the confirm/cancel buttons and button background colors, etc.).
It’s a nasty piece of crap that come preloaded on any phone (android, at least) and Windows-PC here.
It’s time to switch to Linux!
Don’t worry, there is also a Linux version.
Oof
I mean the CCP is aiming to have people use Kylin? If the government and the entire populace starts using Linux instead we’ll just see the same BS on Linux instead. It’s not an OS/platform issue, but an issue of bad actors.
On the plus side maybe then it’ll finally be the year of the Linux desktop.
monkeys paw curls
Then they’ll install the Linux version. People here are so indoctrinated, they like it.
As if other keyboard apps are any different, I don’t think Microsoft bought SwiftKey just for fun?!
Didn’t swiftpad or whatever its called send every key pressed to Microsoft?
Not a China shill. China is horrible. Microsoft less so as they don’t commit genocide in slow motion. But still, I think this sort of thing is more common than we think.
Use FOSS.
What are the best FOSS options for Android keyboard apps? I’ve been struggling with this lately.
I use OpenBoard (it’s available on fDroid. Maybe the play store too).
I don’t know if it’s the best but I like it. If you type in multiple languages you do need to hit a “language switcher” key on the keyboard to switch to the autocorrect for that language. A very minor complaint. Otherwise it’s great.
And it will learn swear words. No more ducking ducks.
I
The people here acting like their Gboard doesn’t do the same is so funny.
Edit : never used nor installed tiktok.
It probably doesn’t though. Obviously it’s closed source making it harder to tell what’s actually happening, but there’s nothing stopping security analysts from looking at network usage and such. I would imagine that Google doesn’t install a keylogger on every Android phone, not out of the goodness of their hearts, but because they don’t want the bad publicity and lawsuits when it would inevitably be discovered.
they do collect usage stats by default though.
which include typed sentences passed through their ai model and words usage counts.
it can all be turned off and gboard seems to respect these options. it doesn’t access online services unless requested with these options off.
Can you point to where it says that in the report? It actually says:
an IME will commonly reach out over the network to a cloud-based service for suggestions if suitable suggestions are not available in the input method’s local database.
So it doesn’t send “every key typed”.
Literally says in bold even:
the keystrokes of Sogou Input Method users can be decrypted by a network eavesdropper, informing the eavesdropper of what users are typing as they type.
AKA every keystroke
What’s the deal with Android “keyboards”? Why is it just an app that you can install? And why can it have more functionality/permissions from the OS beyond just being a local keyboard? As an iOS user this is very bizarre and foreign to me.
I feel like every time the topic of Android keyboards (again, why is this a thing?) comes up it’s some kind of big spyware thing. Seems like most every app on Android and iOS is spyware anyway, of course.
So use Fcitx 5 Android instead. It’s a open source IME application without requesting any permission except Notification, especially without network permission.
https://github.com/fcitx5-android/fcitx5-android
deleted by creator
God bless gdpr
And the Platinum Award for Least Surprising News Headline goes to…
It’s not a bug, it’s a feature.
It’s stories like this that don’t surprise me as much as make me ask: How the fuck do you store and process this much data to get anything useful out of it.
You just save the first 50 digits typed after some email is typed, and you have all the passwords you need!
This only applies if a username is a email
And if it is then what happens when people actually email someone? Autocorrect during login?
I don’t think they’re saying that method would yield 100% clean data but it would give you all the “necessary” data with the absolute bare minimum storage requirement. At some point people will log into their email and for most people if you have their email password you have the password they use for everything
China being China, no surprise here.
I don’t get it? Why are they talking in the article about not using the right type of encryption. The problem isn’t the encryption, but the fact that it is sending your keystrokes to the mothership, right?
