TextSecure response to Stagefright Android vulnerability

TextSecure user, and I can verify this as accurate.<p>When I first saw the stagefright bug, I looked for a way to disable MMS in the app. There is no way to disable MMS in the app, so I had a friend MMS me a message, and I got the warning as the post describes.<p>Feel free to test it out for yourself, but it was nice to see that TextSecure, by its nature, is secure from this bug through design.

Err wow I didn&#x27;t think me raising an issue on Github would put me on the frontpage of HN. But I am glad to see that they handle this well by default - another reason why I will be keeping it!

I haven&#x27;t found a way to block numbers in TextSecure or I would use it<p>... Oh they implemented it last month :D <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;WhisperSystems&#x2F;TextSecure&#x2F;issues&#x2F;222" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;WhisperSystems&#x2F;TextSecure&#x2F;issues&#x2F;222</a>

As a digital and security training for human rights defenders and journalists all over the world - this is one of the reasons why I try as hard as possible to push the awesome work of the WhisperSystems team and Moxie.

There&#x27;s a tool called &quot;Disable Service&quot; with which you can unload app- and system daemons, including MMS processes (both in your messaging or globally on a system level): <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;play.google.com&#x2F;store&#x2F;apps&#x2F;details?id=cn.wq.disableservice&amp;hl=en" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;play.google.com&#x2F;store&#x2F;apps&#x2F;details?id=cn.wq.disables...</a>

See also: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;WhisperSystems&#x2F;TextSecure&#x2F;issues&#x2F;3818" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;WhisperSystems&#x2F;TextSecure&#x2F;issues&#x2F;3818</a>

This is a great example of where usability and security meet. Auto downloading MMS messages is certainly much nicer from a UX perspective. However it can lead to bugs as we are witnessing.<p>I think they struck a good medium.

If I&#x27;m running Android without TextSecure, how do I mitigate this?

I don&#x27;t think a popup warning is much protection. Most people really want to see that picture that they think they just received.

I wonder if this also affects Telegram as well?