Three Lessons From Threema: Analysis of a Secure Messenger

Authors: 

Kenneth G. Paterson, Matteo Scarlata, and Kien Tuong Truong, ETH Zurich

Abstract: 

We provide an extensive cryptographic analysis of Threema, a Swiss-based encrypted messaging application with more than 10 million users and 7000 corporate customers. We present seven different attacks against the protocol in three different threat models. We discuss impact and remediations for our attacks, which have all been responsibly disclosed to Threema and patched. Finally, we draw wider lessons for developers of secure protocols.

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BibTeX
@inproceedings {287280,
author = {Kenneth G. Paterson and Matteo Scarlata and Kien Tuong Truong},
title = {Three Lessons From Threema: Analysis of a Secure Messenger},
booktitle = {32nd USENIX Security Symposium (USENIX Security 23)},
year = {2023},
isbn = {978-1-939133-37-3},
address = {Anaheim, CA},
pages = {1289--1306},
url = {https://www.usenix.org/conference/usenixsecurity23/presentation/paterson},
publisher = {USENIX Association},
month = aug
}

Presentation Video