Breaking Network Crypto in Popular Chinese Keyboard Apps

Explore a DEF CON 32 conference talk that reveals critical security vulnerabilities in popular Chinese Input Method Editor (IME) keyboard applications. Learn how researchers systematically exploited home-rolled network encryption protocols across major Chinese IME keyboard vendors, demonstrating how network eavesdroppers can intercept and read user keystrokes. Discover the widespread impact of these vulnerabilities affecting nearly 800 million users across Sogou IME, Baidu IME, and iFlytek IME keyboards - the three most popular Chinese IME applications and default keyboards on most Android devices. Understand the security implications of cloud-based keystroke transmission used for character prediction in Chinese typing, examine why custom cryptography solutions failed, and join the call for implementing HTTPS encryption in emerging app ecosystems.