The not-so-silent type: Vulnerabilities across keyboard apps reveal keystrokes to network eavesdroppers

In this report, we examine cloud-based pinyin keyboard apps from nine vendors (Baidu, Honor, Huawei, iFlyTek, OPPO, Samsung, Tencent, Vivo, and Xiaomi) for vulnerabilities in how the apps transmit user keystrokes. Our analysis found that eight of the nine apps identified contained vulnerabilities that could be exploited to completely reveal the contents of users’ keystrokes in transit. We estimate that up to one billion users could be vulnerable to having all of their keystrokes intercepted, constituting a tremendous risk to …

analysis app privacy and controls apps baidu chinese cloud cloud-based eight exploited found huawei keyboard keystrokes network network eavesdroppers report reveal samsung silent tencent vendors vulnerabilities xiaomi