“If I’m a nation state group, I’m now going to code up a ‘grabSignalMessage’ plugin for my implants,” Wardle said.Īs the piece notes, it’s not a big concern for the average user, as reading the database would require physical or remote access to the Mac while logged-in, but it does create a vulnerability that shouldn’t exist. That means any malware, hacker, or forensic expert who can bypass the full disk encryption, will be able to recover these messages even after they’re gone in the app, Wardle told me Wardle explains and shows that the messaged end up in a SQLite database that is accessible with normal user permissions. Security researcher and ex-NSA hacker Patrick Wardle investigated and found that it does. Motherboard confirmed this, with Muffett saying the bigger concern was where Notification Center content was stored on a Mac, and whether it created a permanent record. If you are using the desktop app for Mac, check your notifications bar messages get copied there and they seem to persist - even if they are “disappearing” messages which have been deleted/expunged from the app. Motherboard spotted a tweet from Alec Muffett in which he reported that disappearing messages were displayed in the Notification Center – and remained there after they expired in the app.

But a security researcher has discovered a serious failing specific to the Mac app … This feature is often used for passing on the most sensitive information, to ensure there is no permanent record afterwards. Signal allows you the option of sending ‘disappearing’ messages which are automatically purged from the app after a preset time. A Mac-specific vulnerability has been discovered in the secure messaging app Signal.

Disappearing messages signal