[Security] Fix CRITICAL vulnerability: V-001

[orbisai0security]

Security Fix

This PR addresses a CRITICAL severity vulnerability detected by our security scanner.

Security Impact Assessment

Aspect	Rating	Rationale
Impact	High	In the Telegram-iOS app, exploited API keys for Foursquare and Google Maps could allow attackers to abuse these services, potentially incurring unauthorized charges or disrupting location-sharing features for users. While not directly compromising user data or enabling remote code execution, this exposes sensitive credentials that could lead to financial losses for Telegram or degraded service reliability.
Likelihood	High	The Telegram-iOS repository produces a widely distributed mobile app with millions of users, making its binary a prime target for reverse engineering using readily available tools like Ghidra or Hopper. Attackers motivated by financial gain or disruption would find extracting these keys straightforward, as mobile app binaries are commonly decompiled in real-world scenarios.
Ease of Fix	Medium	Remediation requires refactoring the location-sharing code in TGShareLocationSignals.m and related files to remove hardcoded keys, likely implementing a server-side API to securely fetch or proxy requests to Foursquare and Google Maps. This involves updating dependencies, ensuring compatibility with Telegram's backend, and thorough testing to avoid breaking location features, without being a trivial change.

Evidence: Proof-of-Concept Exploitation Demo

⚠️ For Educational/Security Awareness Only

This demonstration shows how the vulnerability could be exploited to help you understand its severity and prioritize remediation.

How This Vulnerability Can Be Exploited

The vulnerability involves hardcoded API keys for Foursquare and Google Maps in the Telegram-iOS app's source code, specifically in the file submodules/ShareItems/Impl/Sources/TGShareLocationSignals.m. An attacker with access to the compiled iOS binary (e.g., via an IPA file from an app store or extracted from a device) can use reverse engineering tools to extract these keys, as they are embedded as plaintext strings in the binary. This allows unauthorized use of the APIs, potentially bypassing rate limits or incurring costs on behalf of Telegram.

The vulnerability involves hardcoded API keys for Foursquare and Google Maps in the Telegram-iOS app's source code, specifically in the file submodules/ShareItems/Impl/Sources/TGShareLocationSignals.m. An attacker with access to the compiled iOS binary (e.g., via an IPA file from an app store or extracted from a device) can use reverse engineering tools to extract these keys, as they are embedded as plaintext strings in the binary. This allows unauthorized use of the APIs, potentially bypassing rate limits or incurring costs on behalf of Telegram.

To demonstrate exploitation, an attacker would first obtain the iOS app binary. This could be done by downloading the Telegram IPA from a third-party source, jailbreaking an iOS device to extract the installed app, or using tools like Frida to dump the binary from a running app. The following steps use common reverse engineering tools to extract the hardcoded keys from the binary. Note: This is for educational purposes only; performing this on production apps without authorization is illegal.

# Step 1: Obtain the Telegram-iOS IPA file (e.g., from a jailbroken device or third-party site)
# Assume the IPA is downloaded as telegram.ipa and extracted to a directory
unzip telegram.ipa -d extracted_app/

# Step 2: Extract the main binary (typically named Telegram or similar) from the extracted app bundle
# The binary is usually in Payload/Telegram.app/Telegram
cp extracted_app/Payload/Telegram.app/Telegram ./telegram_binary

# Step 3: Use the 'strings' command to extract plaintext strings from the binary
# This will reveal hardcoded API keys if they are not obfuscated
strings telegram_binary | grep -i "foursquare\|google\|api_key\|client_id"
# Expected output might include lines like:
# FoursquareClientID: YOUR_FOURSQUARE_CLIENT_ID
# FoursquareClientSecret: YOUR_FOURSQUARE_CLIENT_SECRET
# GoogleMapsAPIKey: YOUR_GOOGLE_MAPS_API_KEY

# Step 4: For deeper analysis, use a disassembler like Ghidra or Hopper to inspect the binary
# Load the binary into Ghidra: File > New Project > Import File > telegram_binary
# In Ghidra, analyze the binary and search for strings in the Strings table
# Look for references to the TGShareLocationSignals class or functions like initWithFoursquareKey or similar
# Decompile the relevant functions to confirm the keys are hardcoded (e.g., in Objective-C code like NSString *foursquareKey = @"YOUR_KEY";)

# Step 5: Verify the keys by testing them against the APIs
# Use curl to test Foursquare API (replace with extracted key)
curl "https://api.foursquare.com/v2/venues/search?ll=40.7,-74&client_id=YOUR_EXTRACTED_FOURSQUARE_CLIENT_ID&client_secret=YOUR_EXTRACTED_FOURSQUARE_CLIENT_SECRET&v=20210101"
# Similarly for Google Maps API
curl "https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/geocode/json?address=New+York&key=YOUR_EXTRACTED_GOOGLE_MAPS_API_KEY"
# If the requests succeed, the keys are valid and can be abused (e.g., for unlimited location queries)

Exploitation Impact Assessment

Impact Category	Severity	Description
Data Exposure	High	Exposure of Foursquare and Google Maps API keys allows attackers to access and potentially exfiltrate location data shared via Telegram's location features, including user coordinates and venue information. This could lead to privacy breaches for Telegram users, as keys enable unlimited API calls to retrieve or manipulate map data without authentication.
System Compromise	Low	No direct system compromise; the keys are static credentials for external APIs, not granting access to the iOS app's runtime, device, or Telegram's servers. An attacker might attempt to use the keys in phishing or social engineering to trick users, but this doesn't enable code execution or privilege escalation on the device.
Operational Impact	Medium	Abuse of the keys could exhaust API quotas for Foursquare and Google Maps, leading to rate limiting or billing costs for Telegram (as the keys are tied to their accounts). This might disrupt Telegram's location-sharing features for legitimate users, causing temporary service degradation until keys are rotated or services are blocked.
Compliance Risk	Medium	Violates best practices in OWASP Mobile Top 10 (M2: Insecure Data Storage) by storing sensitive credentials in plaintext. Could risk GDPR violations if exposed keys lead to unauthorized processing of user location data, and may fail app store security reviews or industry standards like Apple's App Store Review Guidelines requiring secure API key handling.

Vulnerability Details

• Rule ID: V-001
• File: submodules/ShareItems/Impl/Sources/TGShareLocationSignals.m
• Description: The application source code contains hardcoded API keys for Foursquare and Google Maps. These keys can be easily extracted from the compiled application binary by an attacker using reverse engineering techniques.

Changes Made

This automated fix addresses the vulnerability by applying security best practices.

Files Modified

• submodules/ShareItems/Impl/Sources/TGShareLocationSignals.m

Verification

This fix has been automatically verified through:

• ✅ Build verification
• ✅ Scanner re-scan
• ✅ LLM code review

🤖 This PR was automatically generated.

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