Pavel Jelic As part of the IT summary, we look together at the most interesting things that happened in the world of information technology over the past day. In this particular roundup, we will take a look together at a serious bug in many chat apps that can lead to user data leakage. Next, we will look at the new gestures that we have received within the YouTube iOS application, and in the last news we will focus on the update of Microsoft Office for iPadOS. So let's get down to business.
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Vratislav Holub Many chat apps are suffering from a serious security flaw
Nowadays, most users no longer use their smartphones only for making calls or writing SMS messages. The classic activities of every ordinary user of not only an Apple phone include chatting, playing games, watching movies and series, or perhaps listening to favorite music. You'll probably be telling the truth if I say that almost every one of us has an account with some chat application. It should be noted that currently there are countless chat applications available. You can use, for example, a native solution from Apple in the form of iMessage, or Messenger, WhatsApp, Signal, Viber and many others are offered. Of course, each of us uses a chat application that suits us as much as possible, but at the same time, it is necessary to use an application that your friends and/or family use. However, in one of the latest researches, it has been revealed that many of these chat apps are suffering from a serious security flaw.
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The survey was conducted by security researchers Talal Haj Bakry and Tommy Mysk, who pointed out that link previews in many chat apps can lead to security and privacy issues, both on iOS and Android. Through these link previews, the mentioned security researchers discovered that the IP addresses of the users can be leaked to the applications and the sent links can also be revealed. All this can happen even though some applications have end-to-end encryption. In addition, such open links can start immediately, without the user's permission, download huge files to the storage, or create a copy of the user's data. Thanks to these link previews, users can easily see what awaits them on the page they may open. Many users use this option mainly to protect themselves from possible traps, but on the contrary, it turned out that just opening such a link preview can be more dangerous than if you opened the page classically.
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Virtually every chat application, such as Discord, Facebook Messenger, Google Hangouts, Instagram, LinkedIn, Slack, Twitter, and many others, retrieves a link preview by sending a request to a remote server where the preview is generated. Once generated, the preview is then displayed on the user's device. But in some cases it can be bypassed and the generated links can get all kinds of data about the users. However, most applications have a maximum data limit set with which the preview can work. On the other hand, it turned out that, for example, Messenger or Instagram from Facebook has practically no limit and loads all the data found in the open link. So hopefully this security flaw will be fixed soon. For the time being, there is probably nothing left but to recommend that you do not use link previews.
YouTube comes with new gestures in the iOS application
If you're looking for some entertainment during the day, then YouTube can be of great help. You will find countless videos on this portal and it can be said that there is truly something for everyone. You get the best YouTube experience on your iPhone with the YouTube app, which is available completely free of charge. Google, which owns YouTube, decided to improve the app in its latest update, adding some new gestures that you can use for easier control, along with other changes. For example, we can mention the relocated button for automatic video playback, which is now located at the top of the video and not below the video, as well as the button for activating subtitles. You can then go into full screen mode simply by swiping your finger over the video from the bottom up – no need to tap the icon. If you then swipe down, full screen mode will be disabled. The timeline has also received changes, which now shows how many minutes of the video you have already watched and how much time is left to the end. In addition, YouTube can now notify you of certain actions, thanks to which you can get a better enjoyment of watching a video - for example, it can ask you to turn your device to landscape, or to use VR glasses.
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The Microsoft Office suite for iPadOS has received an update
If you are an iPad user and at the same time like to use the Microsoft Office suite on it, I have great news for you. This application has also received an update, just like the aforementioned YouTube. However, Microsoft only updated the version intended for iPadOS - specifically, support was added for using the trackpad or mouse in Word, Excel and PowerPoint applications. When using a mouse or trackpad, the cursor in these applications automatically adapts to the content, which makes control much easier. In short and simply, Microsoft states that controlling the Microsoft Office package on the iPad with a mouse or trackpad will be practically identical to controlling the desktop version. In addition, Microsoft added new loading screens for its applications and made several other changes to modernize applications.
