Technician detects Wechat has set of special character files, Suspicious data monitoring

2023.06.08 02:47 ET

Recently, a network technician in Taiwan discovered that the popular Chinese application WeChat has set up encrypted log files on personal computers and may upload these data. Several WeChat users also said that WeChat occupies a lot of space on their computers and mobile phones and cannot be deleted.

WeChat has become one of the communication or payment tools for most Chinese and even users in other parts of the world. A Hao, a programmer with a master’s degree in the University of Science and Technology of China, a network researcher in Taiwan, recently showed in a video about WeChat’s 24-hour monitoring of user data. The video went viral in WeChat groups this week, triggering many netizens' security concerns about using WeChat to chat. 

Ahao said in the video that some users reported that WeChat took up 1 G of space on their computers. At first, Ahao thought it was nothing, but found that the problem was not simple. He explained: "This one G space turned out to be a bunch of encrypted log files, which greatly aroused my curiosity. Under normal circumstances, it is fine for the software to take up disk space to record some logs, but why is it encrypted? Look? The point is that this is my own computer, but you don’t let me see it, it’s really unreasonable. The most scary thing is that WeChat may have uploaded these files.”

User already deleted Wechat software but it still record computer activities in the background

Do not operate WeChat software but still record computer activities in the background

A Hao said that he used the same Apple laptop and testing tools as other technicians to open his computer's WeChat disk, but found a problem.

He said: "Because we want to see what files are read and written by WeChat in the background, we chose the file monitoring function. After opening, we selected the monitoring program, and then turned on the monitoring and recording function. During this period, our WeChat software can Keep silent in the background. After about five minutes, we stopped the monitoring and recording function. At this time, we can see the activity data of WeChat on the computer in the past five minutes in the panel below. This activity data mainly includes files. related operations."

The programmer Ah Hao said that after quickly filtering the keyword xloa, after opening the xloa file: "The displayed is a bunch of garbled characters, which have been encrypted. It seems that we have not operated WeChat just now, and it seems to have been silent in the background. Then Why are these log files still generated? After a long period of observation, this file will grow by about 30KB every three to eight minutes on my computer, and this feeling is really uncomfortable."

Ah Hao said that these encrypted data are updated every three to eight minutes. (Video screenshot/provided by Guting)

Ah Hao said that he would modify the relevant encrypted data stored in his computer so that the other party could not read it.

However, most users do not have Ah Hao's professional skills, nor can they judge whether their personal computers and mobile phones have been hacked. Mr. Cai, a WeChat user, told this station that WeChat takes up more space on his mobile phone and computer than other applications, and most users know about WeChat’s collection of users’ personal data, but they need to use it for convenience.

He said: "My mobile phone has more than 500 G of memory, and now WeChat accounts for more than 200 G. I delete WeChat every once in a while and reinstall it, but it doesn't work, and it will take up a lot of G soon. So this kind of monitoring is affirmative. , because now people mainly get information through WeChat. Now I occasionally post some pictures in Moments, and basically don’t talk at other times.”

Ah Hao said that these data are encrypted and exist in the form of "garbled characters", which can be checked at any time on WeChat, but he himself cannot understand them. (Video screenshot/provided by Guting)

WeChat users fear data surveillance

Public welfare activist He Peirong told this station that she once learned from a programmer that mobile phones using WeChat are often used as a database to store personal mobile phone activity information. She said: "I also found that WeChat takes up a lot of memory space and cannot be deleted on one mobile phone. After I discovered this problem, I have two spare mobile phones all year round. One mobile phone uses WeChat and domestic software; the other mobile phone is private. Use, with foreign APP installed."

According to Chinese official data, as of December last year, WeChat users reached about 1.3 billion. But there are many concerns about the security of WeChat, chief among them data surveillance. Earlier reports revealed that the WeChat company cooperated with the Chinese government in data surveillance and provided some sensitive information to government agencies, raising concerns about restrictions and surveillance on personal information and speech.

 

Reporter: Gu Ting Editors in charge: Chen Meihua, Xu Shuting, He Ping Web editor: Hong Wei

https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/kejiaowen/gt-06082023024436.html