Dozens of popular file management apps published by a popular operator of an online document management system do not encrypt file transfers to and from user devices, potentially exposing data.
Mobile security firm Wandera, which discovered the issue, described it as impacting 23 of 29 Cometdocs apps on Apple's App Store. Four of the remaining apps did not convert files as claimed, and the other two were not file conversion apps. A random sampling of 31 Android versions of the same apps that Cometdocs has published on Google's official Play store showed them to be leaking private files as well, Wandera said.
"The Cometdocs applications are transferring files without using encryption (via http), providing bad actors the opportunity to cache and retrieve the files," the security vendor said in a report Thursday. The lack of encryption also gives attackers on the same Wi-Fi network as the user an opportunity to access files as they are transmitted to and from Cometdocs servers.
"This is the first time I have seen entire documents sent across the network without strong encryption," says Michael Covington, vice president of product at Wandera. Bad actors and casual eavesdroppers need minimal effort to obtain entire documents being sent to the conversion service, he says. Though Wandera has not performed any random tests of other document management software, it is unlikely that many are leaking full documents like Cometdocs apps, Covington notes.
Thes apps are an example of the risks organizations face when they allow employees to use unmanaged mobile devices and non-vetted apps for work-related purposes. "When users introduce applications ..
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