Abstract:
This work presents an exploration of the security posture of Zulip and its electronbased desktop client through the lens of penetration testing. By simulating real-world attacks on our own instance of the application, we uncover potential weaknesses in the application’s defenses providing insights into the quality of security measures present in their default configurations. This document discusses the severity and the practical implications of the individual vulnerabilities and proposes targeted mitigation strategies. The insights gained from this work not only address immediate security concerns, but also suggest long-term strategies for enhancing the robustness of Zulip. We report 12 findings, mostly caused by minor configuration issues and questionable design choices. All of our findings have already been communicated to the responsible entities at the time of writing, adhering to responsible disclosure guidelines.