Earn $300,000 for Cracking Telegram Messenger

Think you got skills? Think you can break an encryption? Then you can earn a nice little $300.000 bonus to sweeten your next couple years of expenses. The messenger service Telegram prides themselves on high security and end-to-end encryption and they are now offering prize money for cracking their encryption.

Earlier this year we had a contest to decipher intercepted Telegram messages, that did not produce a winner. Today we announce a new contest with an easier task and a larger prize — $300,000 for cracking Telegram’s encryption, and this time contestants can not only monitor traffic, but also act as the Telegram server and use active attacks, which vastly increases their capabilities.

You’ll have to assume the role of a malicious entity in full control of both the communication lines and Telegram servers. Your goal is to extract a hidden email address in a Secret Chat between the two users Nick and Paul. You control the entire process, from chat creation to the sending of each individual message and can perform various active attacks, including MITM, KPA, CPA, replay attacks, etc.

To prove that you indeed cracked the service’s encryption, you’ll have to provide the entire text of the message that contains the secret email address as well as session logs and detailed explanation of the attack. And don’t forget to add your bank details so you can get that $300,000 bounty.

The competition ends February 4, 2015 where the keys for encryption will be released to prove that the competition was fair. Happy cracking everyone. If you’re not up for the challenge, you might want to check out Telegram Messenger App anyway as it offers great instant messenger features for free and without advertising across all platforms, including browsers.

Thanks to Telegram for providing us with this information

Images courtesy of Telegram