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WeChat - Guess what happened....

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  1. #1

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    WeChat - Guess what happened....

    Guess what happened when Axios' China correspondant / reporter changed their password...

    https://twitter.com/BethanyAllenEbr/...11996007559168

    Last edited by shri; 05-06-2020 at 08:37 AM.
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  2. #2

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    Doesn't that imply WeChat stores the passwords in plain text? I'm sure that's safe.


  3. #3

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    Or all raw text / API requests go through their filters before it is processed.

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  4. #4

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    Like any good government-influenced software/hardware/IT company, there'll be backdoors where necessary to facilitate spying or information gathering. Not limited to China here, either. Plenty of American companies to choose from too.


  5. #5

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    An amusing story!


  6. #6

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    Did that all the time at places where an email address is asked for wifi access. Wonder how many similar addresses are collected in a day from McDonald's


  7. #7

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    Quote Originally Posted by mrgoodkat:
    Doesn't that imply WeChat stores the passwords in plain text? I'm sure that's safe.
    Quote Originally Posted by shri:
    Or all raw text / API requests go through their filters before it is processed.
    I'd say they just use a two-way encription, not just a hashing method...So it's encrypted, but they can decrypt it too. But that's just my take.
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  8. #8

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    Do they really care much what is typed in english ?


  9. #9

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    Quote Originally Posted by freeier:
    Do they really care much what is typed in english ?
    Give it a try and report back
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  10. #10
    Haha, that's not how that works. You need a friend in China (or other long-time WeChat user) that will vouch for you. It's very hard or impossible to create an account as a foreigner without Chinese friends. My wild guess is that the password was intercepted in the plaintext by the Firewall (yes, it's sent with SSL, but I'm pretty sure China has appropriate privkeys), correlated with the WeChat user, and blocked automatically with some very internal Firewall - WeChat integration.