We're most secured when comes to protecting IP addresses during calls: Telegram
- October 21, 2023
- Updated: 03:28 pm
New Delhi, Oct 21 : Encrypted messaging platform Telegram on Saturday said it is the most secure mass market messenger when it comes to protecting IP addresses during calls.
The company responded to a cyber-security researcher called Denis Simonov, who showcased it was easy to access the IP address of any account on encrypted messaging app Telegram with a simple tool.
In a statement to IANS, Telegram said it is the only platform that doesn't use peer-to-peer for all calls by default.
'Only those on a user's contact list (trusted parties) are able to see their IP address when making a call. Calls with strangers are routed through Telegram's servers specifically for the purpose of masking IP addresses,' the company said.
Telegram said it also gives users an option to disable peer-to-peer calls for contacts completely, routing all calls through the servers.
'This doesn't constitute a 'leak' since IP addresses are shared by technical necessity to facilitate peer-to-peer calls,' the company mentioned.
According to Telegram, in other messaging platforms, all the calls use peer-to-peer networking by default and share IP addresses without giving any option to their users to change this.
Simonov wrote in a post that recently, he was faced with the task of determining the IP address of his interlocutor in the Telegram messenger.
'For this purpose, I used the network traffic analysis tool Wireshark, where I detected STUN protocol traffic,' he mentioned.
STUN (Session Traversal Utilities for NAT) is a standardised protocol designed to help devices behind NAT (Network Address Translation) determine their external IP address and the type of NAT that is used on their gateway.
'After spending a little time, I decided to automate the process of obtaining the IP of my counterpart in Telegram using the console version of Wireshark - tshark,' the researcher added.
/IANS