
Telegram desktop app leaked internet addresses when starting calls - walterbell
https://www.engadget.com/2018/09/30/telegram-desktop-app-leaked-ip-addresses/
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parsadotsh
Posted by Telegram's founder Durov on his channel:

Some tech media reported that the Telegram Desktop app wasn’t secure because
it “leaked IP addresses” when used to accept a voice call.

The reality is much less sensational – Telegram Desktop was at least as secure
as other encrypted VoIP apps even before we improved it by adding an option to
disable peer-to-peer calls. As for Telegram calls on mobile, they were always
more secure than the competition, because they had this setting since day one.

During a peer-to-peer (P2P) call, voice traffic flows directly from one
participant of a call to the other without relying on an intermediary server.
P2P routing allows to achieve higher quality calls with lower latency, so the
current industry standard is to have P2P switched on by default.

However, there’s a catch: by definition, both devices participating in a P2P
call have to know the IP addresses of each other. So if you make or accept a
call, the person on the other side may in theory learn your IP address.

That’s why, unlike WhatsApp or Viber, Telegram always gave its users the
ability to switch off P2P calls and relay them through a Telegram server.
Moreover, in most countries we switched off P2P by default.

Telegram Desktop, which is used in less than 0.01% of Telegram calls, was the
only platform where this setting was missing. Thanks to a researcher who
pointed that out, we made the Telegram Desktop experience consistent with the
rest of our apps.

However, it is important to put this into perspective and realize that this is
about one Telegram app (Telegram Desktop) being somewhat less secure than
other Telegram apps (e.g. Telegram for iOS or Android). If you compare
Telegram with other popular messaging services our there, unfortunately, they
are not even close to our standards.

Using the terminology from the flashy headlines, WhatsApp, Viber and the rest
have been “leaking your IP address” in 100% of calls. They are still doing
this, and you can't opt out. The only way to stop this is to have all your
friends switch to Telegram.

