گروه پرشین فاکس – The Persian Fox -the Farsi Telegram App

Recently in cyberspace and market software market such as Persian Telegram published a little different with the original telegram. Most Iranians are fearful of using the Persian Fox since the government monitors and surveils their every move. The preference is for the real Telegram to be used although, the Iranians sites there are infiltrated with Basij members who report on the comments of everyday Iranians as well as hackers. Attempts by Basij (the Iranian government) and other pro-gov organizations to penetrate and hack Telegram is underway.

There are a couple of files of interest:

persianfox.messenger.permission.C2D_MESSAGE
persianfox.messenger.permission.MAPS_RECEIVE

The access requirements are much different from the original Telegram, and the developer has not provided any explanation about the reason for this access. The features provide the programmer and anyone associated with the company who wrote the software, access to all your Telegram Farsi messages as well as the ability to enable your GPS and determine your location. That is just the beginning. Below are the access requirements:

permission.USE_FINGERPRINT
Run at startup
Read phone state and identity
Draw over other apps
Shake control
Create accounts and set passwords
Read sync settings
Toggle sync on and off
Read your own contact card
Add or remove accounts
Modify your contacts
Read your contacts
Find accounts on the device
Read memory cards
Change or delete SD card contents
Prevent the device from going to sleep
Receive text messages (SMS)
View Wi-Fi connections
View network connections
voice recording
Full Internet access
Precise location (GPS and network-based)
Approximate location (network-based)
Web service access platform
persianfox.messenger.permission.C2D_MESSAGE
persianfox.messenger.permission.MAPS_RECEIVE
Get information from the Internet

This looks to be developed to the specifications of the Iranian government enabling them to track every bit and byte put forward by users of the app. Persianfox is apropos. Remember the requirements from Gerdab.ir http://cybershafarat.com/2015/09/07/gerdab-ir-oppress-your-people-basij-turn-on-your-own-the-new-savak-pasdaran-and-basij-rules-of-oppression-reporting/

The full download my before at the Iranian online store Cafebazaar: https://cafebazaar.ir/app/ir.persianfox.messenger/?l=fa or you may download bazaar. Or you may acquire the APK below as provided by Treadstone 71:

ir.persianfox.messenger_721.fl (zip file – run at your own risk- in a lab environment preferably)

The source code may be found at github: https://github.com/mokhtarabadi/Telegram-Farsi

There are some interesting leads to follow here as well (happy hunting):