Submitted 3 weeks ago by BrikoX@lemmy.zip to technology@lemmy.zip
https://micahflee.com/heres-the-source-code-for-the-unofficial-signal-app-used-by-trump-officials/
Yesterday, I published an analysis of what I could publicly find about TM SGNL, the obscure and unofficial Signal app used by Mike Waltz, and presumably also by Pete Hegseth, JD Vance, Tulsi Gabbard, and other fascists in Trump’s government. Afterwards, someone privately sent me the URL
https://www.telemessage.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Signal.zip.
Whaaaat
Can someone explain why this is remarkable… or not.
The source code seems to have some hardcoded credentials in there, essentially making this a back door. The git repo also seems to have Israeli surveillance roots to it, which is troubling for any sort of top secret data.
If you read the blog post one day older than this one from before he got the code, he speaks more about the Israeli ties. The CEO for TeleMessage is former IDF.
micahflee.com/tm-sgnl-the-obscure-unofficial-sign…
I haven’t spent a lot of time looking into TeleMessage, but what I did find at a quick glance is that several of the executives on the teams page list Israeli universities in their bios, and the CEO, Guy Levit, says that, “From 1996 until 1999, Guy served as the head of the planning and development of one of the IDF’s Intelligence elite technical units.”
Thank you for making this make sense :)
From the article, direct links to the code:
Paywall bypass for the article’s link on the hackers that exfiltrated message contents: archive.is/8kaQQ
Why not just use the official signal app, if you’re going to use it at all?
Apparently archives.
I guess its a legal requirement.
I archive my signal chats. But, I guess, they need an automatic way to do that. They should ask their precious Grok or whatever tf it’s called.
Us there a secondary source that this is actually the app being used?
Thanks
Paywalled.
So that whole thing with the Signal group chat was done on some wacky fork on top of that??? Lmao
pennomi@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
All the top contributors have .il tlds for their emails. Hmmm… I’m just gonna throw it out there, but an app created by foreign nationals might not be a good choice for top secret communication.
spankmonkey@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
It is if you are a foreign asset.
RustyShackleford@literature.cafe 3 weeks ago
It is if the official is being payed to lure fellow officials into making big security mistakes. Anyone who knows a sociopath knows they would sell their mom for a candy bar.
jagged_circle@feddit.nl 3 weeks ago
If its open source and audited, it doesn’t matter.
pennomi@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Sure, but this is a very obscure project. It has few eyes holding it accountable.