Bengaluru techie hacks Aarogya Setu app in under four hours

Team Udayavani, May 14, 2020, 5:00 PM IST

A Bengaluru-based software engineer has hacked Aarogya Setu app. Jay, a software engineer in Bengaluru, did not like the fact that the app was becoming mandatory in India and decided to hack it.

It is said that it took him just a few hours to hack the application by bypassing the security issues. He managed to bypass the prompt message that asks for personal information like name, age, gender, travel history, and symptoms.

He  bypassed without giving his location and turning on Bluetooth without which the app can’t function much. He also got marked “safe” without giving any permission to run on his phone.

A few days earlier, a person named Elliot Alserson also tweeted that there were security issued in the Aarogya Setu App.

Hi @SetuAarogya,

A security issue has been found in your app. The privacy of 90 million Indians is at stake. Can you contact me in private?

Regards,

PS: @RahulGandhi was right

— Elliot Alderson (@fs0c131y) May 5, 2020

However, his claims were rejected by the Indian government and termed the app safe for use.

Statement from Team #AarogyaSetu on data security of the App. pic.twitter.com/JS9ow82Hom

— Aarogya Setu (@SetuAarogya) May 5, 2020