Viber encryption. How to open a hidden chat in Viber - user instructions

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Viber's competitors have long modified their applications, adding the ability to communicate anonymously. This function significantly increases the popularity of the product among users, as it gives them greater security. Finally, this feature has been added to Viber. Now you don’t have to worry about your correspondence and its availability to a wide range of people.

How exactly does secret chat work?

In appearance, private chats look the same as regular ones. But they have a padlock icon next to them, which indicates that these messages were transmitted using an encrypted connection. But these are not all the possibilities.

For these types of dialogues, you can set any time period after which messages in automatic mode will be deleted. Therefore, even if someone gets unauthorized access to your device - it will be disappointed. Now you know that this is a secret chat in Viber.

Create a secret chat

You can go directly from the regular dialogue

As you can see, this method is much faster than the first.

Setting up auto-delete

Anonymity architecture is provided by the system end-to-end encryption. In it, to read the information, you need an access key. Which is issued only to the sender and recipient. Even if unauthorized access is obtained, the attacker will not be able to read the messages.

What is secret chat

Secret chat in Viber is designed for secret communication. Access to messages will be denied to both unauthorized persons and the company server. Using this function, you can calmly discuss the most important and intimate issues related to work factors and personal life. Even if your gadget falls into the wrong hands, you don’t have to worry that someone will steal it interesting idea or finds out confidential information, the application will delete the correspondence automatically after the time you specify.

Viber also has a concept - this is not the same as a secret chat.

Let's figure out how secret chat works in Viber. A special coding and protection technique is used for such dialogues. They are marked with a lock icon. The user himself sets the time after which the letters are destroyed. Unlike simple conversations, you cannot delete some messages here; the correspondence is completely deleted.

How to find a secret chat in Viber? You can find a dialogue by scrolling through all conversations from beginning to end. But there is no point in looking for it, since all messages are deleted, and only empty windows remain, which take up space on the device and arouse suspicion if they are discovered by strangers. This is a flaw of the creators. We hope that the problems will be resolved in the near future.

Invisible dialogues have their own characteristics:

Viber secrets are available to device owners with operating system And ;
it is possible to set the option to self-destruct messages, starting from 1 minute and up to a week;
if the interlocutor takes a screenshot of the correspondence, you will receive a notification about this and will be able to resolve the situation;
texts cannot be copied and forwarded to third parties;
End-to-end encryption will protect Viber secrets on the phone, since only the one who sends and receives can decrypt them.

Now you know what a secret chat in Viber is and you can be sure that it can store.

How to create a secret chat

Many users are wondering: how to create a secret chat in Viber? There are two ways this can be done, and they are all quite simple.

go to the application;
go to the contacts section;
select the right person by scrolling or through search and click on it;
click on the line “Free message”;
in the open dialog box, select the icon with three vertical dots;
Click "Go to secret chat."

open the messenger;
click on the “+” icon in blue circle, which is located in the lower right corner of the monitor;
select the line “Secret chat”;
add an interlocutor from the list;
check "Done".

If you need to hide an existing conversation, follow these steps:

go to the dialogue section;
stop at the one you want to make secret;
open the auxiliary menu (three dots at the top of the display);
Click on the “Go to secret chat” item.

That's all! Are you ready hidden correspondence in Viber.

Delete messages in a secret conversation

After discussing an important topic, many are interested in how to disable secure chat in Viber. This is done like this:

go to a secret conversation with a picture of a castle;
click on the icon with three vertical dots located on the right top corner to open additional information;
go to “Information and Settings”;
select the line “Go to regular chat”.

This way, you switch the private conversation to traditional mode, which will not delete messages. But there will still be two conversations on the device: one normal, the second with a lock. If the need for secret correspondence arises again, you can simply go to the existing one; for this, the PIN code is entered again.

If you are thinking about how to delete a secret chat from Viber altogether, there is nothing complicated about it either.

go to the list of conversations;
tap on an unwanted conversation and hold your finger on it;
in the window that appears, select the “Delete chat” line.

Now you know how to remove a secret chat in Viber if there is no longer a need for its secrecy or existence.

Not to be confused with hidden conversation

Some users make a mistake and enable hidden conversation. A hidden conversation differs from a secret conversation in that information is not deleted in it. If you discussed something an important event, which should not be known to strangers, and you want to save the contents, in this case, you hide the dialogue using a special option.

End-to-end encryption in instant messengers has gained popularity because it occurs completely unnoticed by users. They do not need to independently generate key pairs, sign them, distribute open ones and protect them secret keys, recall old and compromised ones in a timely manner - everything is done automatically, and the correspondence is magically protected. But is everything really so good?

WARNING

All information in this article is provided for informational purposes only. Neither the editors nor the author are responsible for any possible harm caused by the materials of this article.

Back in 2004, our compatriot Nikita Borisov, together with Ian Goldberg, developed a universal cryptographic protocol for instant messaging systems. The protocol was called OTR (Off-the-Record Messaging) and began to be distributed openly under GPL license in the form of a ready-made library. Subsequently, OTR became the basis of other popular protocols with additional methods increasing safety. In particular, the Signal protocol, formerly known as TextSecure. Most other modern instant messengers are also based on Signal.

Principles of encryption of correspondence

Conceptually, all cryptographic methods for protecting correspondence must provide at least two basic properties: confidentiality and message integrity. Confidentiality means that only interlocutors can decipher each other's messages. Neither the Internet provider, nor the messenger developer, nor any other third party should have technical feasibility perform decryption in a reasonable time. Integrity provides protection against accidental corruption and targeted spoofing attacks. Any message modified during transmission will be automatically rejected by the receiving party as damaged and no longer trusted.

In modern exchange protocols instant messages are also being resolved additional tasks, increasing convenience and safety. In the Signal protocol and its closest analogues, these are properties such as asynchronous transmission, forward and reverse secrecy.

You've probably noticed that missed messages are delivered in instant messengers. They come even if you were talking in group chat and suddenly disconnected for a long time in the middle of a conversation. This is asynchrony: messages are encrypted and delivered independently of each other. Moreover, due to time stamps and some additional mechanisms their logical sequence is maintained.

A property like forward secrecy, implies that if the encryption key of the current message is compromised, it will not be possible to decrypt the previous correspondence. To do this, messengers often change session keys, each of which encrypts its own small portion of messages.

Likewise reverse secrecy provides protection for future messages if the current key is compromised. New keys are generated in such a way that their relationship with the previous ones is extremely difficult to calculate.

Forward and reverse secrecy are implemented in modern key management mechanisms. The Signal protocol uses the Double Ratchet (DR) algorithm for this. It was developed in 2013 by cryptography consultant Trevor Perrin and Open Whisper Systems founder Moxie Marlinspike.

The name is a reference to the Enigma mechanical cipher machine, which used ratchets - gears with inclined teeth that moved in only one direction. Due to this, the state of the gears in the encryption machine was eliminated, repeating one of the recently used ones.

By analogy with them, the “digital ratchet” also prevents reuse previous states of the encryption system. DR often changes session keys, while preventing previously generated ones from being reused. This is precisely what it provides for forward and reverse secrecy, that is, additional protection individual messages. Even if one session key is successfully selected, the attacker will only be able to decrypt messages encrypted by it, and this is always a small part of the correspondence.

The Signal protocol also implements many other interesting mechanisms, the description of which is beyond the scope of this article. The results of its audit can be found.

Signal and its analogues

The end-to-end encryption provided by Signal is today used both in the messenger of the same name from Open Whisper Systems, and in many third parties: WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Viber, Google Allo, G Data Secure Chat - they all use the original or slightly modified version of the Signal Protocol, sometimes giving them proper names. For example, Viber uses the Proteus protocol - essentially the same Signal with other cryptographic primitives.

However, with a similar implementation of end-to-end encryption, an application can compromise data in other ways. For example, WhatsApp and Viber have a function Reserve copy correspondence history. In addition, WhatsApp sends communication statistics to Facebook servers. The protection of the local and cloud copies of correspondence is formal, and the metadata is not encrypted at all - this is openly stated in the license agreement.

The metadata shows who communicates with whom and how often, what devices they use, where they are, and so on. This is a huge layer of indirect information that can be used against interlocutors who consider their communication channel secure. For example, the NSA does not care what words the suspect congratulated Assange on leaving Obama in the cold and what Julian answered him. The important thing is that they correspond.

As mentioned above, all messengers periodically change session encryption keys, and this is a normal process. The main key may change if the interlocutor moved to another device, went offline for a long time... or someone started writing on his behalf, hijacking his account.

In the original Signal app, a notification about the key change is sent to all participants in the conversation. In WhatsApp and other instant messengers, this setting is disabled by default, as it does not benefit most users meaningful information. Also, the key changes when the interlocutor is absent online for a long time - this is both a bug and a feature at the same time.

As Tobias Boelter, a researcher from the University of California at Berkeley, wrote about this, when attacking a service, it is possible to create new key and receive messages instead of the recipient. Moreover, WhatsApp server operators themselves can do the same - for example, at the request of intelligence services.

The developers of the Signal protocol refute Boelter's findings and come to the defense of WhatsApp. According to them, key substitution only gives access to undelivered messages. Little consolation.

You can enable notification of a key change in the settings, but in practice this paranoid mode is unlikely to yield anything. The messenger notifies about the key change only after resend messages. It is believed that this is more convenient for the users themselves.

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With the release of the update under the index 6.7, popular Viber messenger got a new cool feature – “ Secret chats" Thanks to them you will receive new level confidentiality in personal or group communication. You can find out more about the mechanisms of operation and setting up the function in this material.

In contact with

Secret chats allow you to create messages that self-destruct at a given period of time, which will become great addition to the previously launched function with PIN code blocking.

What can you do in Viber secret chat?

you can set a self-destruct timer for all messages within the correspondence;
message forwarding function is deactivated;
if an interlocutor or chat participant takes a screenshot, others will know about it through a special notification;
data exchange occurs via an encrypted channel;
It is possible to hide secret chat.

You can have two chats with one user at once - regular and secret (marked with a lock icon). Removal secret chat does not in any way affect the history of regular correspondence (when the PIN code is removed from a blocked correspondence, the history is cleared).

How to create a secret chat in Viber on iPhone?

1 . Download or update Viber to the latest version.

2 Chats» or use the search.

3 . Click on the contact's name.

4 . Tap on " Go to secret chat».

How to add participants to a secret chat in Viber on iPhone?

1 . Open a secret chat.

2 . Tap the contact name (contact list) and select " Information and settings».

3 . Tap on " Adding Participants».

How to set the time until a message disappears in Viber on iPhone?

1 . Open a secret chat.

2 . In the message text line, click on the timer.

3 . Select the time interval of interest (from 1 second to 7 days) or turn off the timer completely so that the message is not deleted.

How to hide secret chat in Viber on iPhone?

1 . Launch the application and go to the " Chats».

2 . Swipe left on the secret chat you are interested in and click " Hide».

3 . Tap on " Set PIN code».

4 . Enter the PIN code and, if necessary, activate the option to unlock the secret chat using fingerprint touch sensor ID.

Probably many beginners are interested in how to open hidden chat in Viber, and also what are these so-called hidden chats created for?

Purpose of hidden chats

Following some other instant messengers, Viber developers also decided to further ensure the confidentiality of communications for their users. Of course, enhanced encryption protocols still work just fine. But sometimes you need to hide correspondence not from the eyes of hackers, but from. for example, an annoying or overly nosy roommate. Or from parents.

And in this case, no encryption protocols will help. You can, of course, set a lock on your smartphone. Yes, this can also be very useful, but the so-called hidden chats in Viber are additional guarantee that the information will not fall into the wrong hands. The point is that all messages sent and received in such a chat cannot be read without knowing the secret PIN code. It is invented by the user himself. And in this way you can protect any chat by turning it into a secret one. In addition, such chats do not appear on the Chats page.

It’s as if they don’t exist at all; only the owner of the device knows about their existence. So, even if the phone is stolen, nothing from the correspondence in such a chat will be seen by prying eyes. When you receive a message inside a secret chat, a notification about who exactly it came from will not even appear on the screen. The system simply shows that a new message has arrived. That's all. You can turn any chat into a hidden chat. In the same way, any hidden one can be turned into a regular chat at any time.

How to open messages in hidden chat

As soon as a notification about a new received message appears on the screen, you can read it. To open a hidden chat, you will need:

Open the Viber application;
Go to the Chats section;
Click on the on-screen button in the form of a magnifying glass (upper right corner);
After which the system will prompt you to enter the previously invented PIN;
If the code matches, then all hidden chats that are on the device will be displayed;
You can start using them like regular chats.

If the PIN code is forgotten, then, alas, nothing can be done in this case. If you know how to view a hidden chat in Viber, as well as how to use this function in general, then you can significantly expand your capabilities in terms of everyday use this communication application.