5-year-old Skype Backdoor Discovered — Mac OS X Users Urged to Update

Here's what a Microsoft spokesperson said about the backdoor:

"We do not build backdoors into our products, but we do continuously improve the product experience [and] product security and encourage customers to always upgrade to the latest version."

Trustwave also speculated that the backdoor believed to have been accidently left in Skype "during the process of implementing the dashboard plugin," as the Skype dashboard widget does not appear to utilize it.

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Currious if this is also the case with the Linux client.

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Yeah the Linux client is really outdate piece of ........you shouldn't use it XD

There is better way using the skype web/api (not sure what it is) and link it to Pidgin or Empathy.

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Does anyone use Mega for this kind of service. Since its available not sure if it's caught on enough yet

Sadly lot of alternative don't get cached on good... Skype was magical till MS took it.

But Mega had some high end encryption stuff going on? It looked good but didn't checked it out when it became available.

Discord just took over since MS and skype were dragging their feet too much.

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Yeah forgot discord. Its growing. but Skype is still big in daily users.

Wire is a good Skype alternative as well, it feels similar to Skype which is good for the average consumer. I also believe it was created by the same people involved with the first versions of Skype (pre-microsoft), but I might be wrong there (http://wire.com)

They have been slowly making it better. Added some controls ect....

Is anyone who uses Skype really that worried about something like this? Microsoft, government agencies and who knows who else already as access to you through Skype, are you really going to be that much more worried if some un-approved third party gets access as well?

Yes. While Microsoft and various other have access it is usually protected and encrypted or not critical data like crash reports and the access it limited to certain parties.

This is a no holds barred open access vulnerability. Infinitely more dangerous, especially to the completely totally never once in history nerfd Mac OS...

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i use it on my phone when my parents call. however i would assume on linux it wouldnt be a problem because it doesnt run in the background like win

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Well like earlier stated Skype was good until MS bought it, marketing and prettyness appeal more that's normal lol

I agree. Any exploit can be used for Good/Bad. Hence why 'GoldenKeys' 'Backdoors' are a no no in encryption and security.

They should, If someone has found a backdoor, anyone can exploit it, which makes it dangerous.

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Whenever there's an exploit anywhere within 24 hours there's a gazillion bots scanning every single IP and hammering the exploit, so yeah people should retain some sense of protective instinct

dude what are you talking about. M$ has made backdoor into skype's encryption on purpose so that the FBI and god knows who else can see all communications. Skype is compromised by default. They talked about this on DEFCON.

Never really liked Skype, but I used it because that's what my friends used at the time. Now I just don't talk to them. Problem solved, no need for Skype on my Macaroni.

Not true. I forgot the list but the bugs in Skype 4 is huge and not maintained. Every security issue in skype founded in the last 2-3 years has not been repaired. using https://web.skype.com is really kind of safer (as safe as it can be on skype).

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Well they are working on a new client for linux which is currently still in Alpha.

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Ah good they didn't neglect it. That is good news.