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I was on the Kik messenger app, and someone in a group chat posted screenshots of his modded Kik app that contains an "IP grabber". He said he could hack people easily, and was very fast to tell me my own IP address. He was able to tell when anyone in the chatroom was lurking (i.e watching the chat without typing), for how long, their last activity, etc. I have no idea how, but he was able to know my IP address along with 2 other people in the chatroom. Prior to this, he had sent me a picture which I downloaded a week ago. He has not sent me any links, and I have certainly not clicked on any links from him. We had a few messages back and forth, but that's it. He said that he would hack me, so I logged out a few hours later. I used AVG antivirus and Kaspersky to scan my phone, and there were no issues detected. I manually checked my downloaded apps on Android, and there wasn't any downloaded app that was new. I have since then logged out of Kik, but I am concerned: could he be spying on my phone, and what can I do to prevent this?

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  • Could it? Possibly. Is it likely? No.
    – user163495
    Mar 26, 2020 at 13:17
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    Here's the thing: if he posed any kind of threat, he would not be talking so openly about it. He would just do it. He wants to impress you. And if this is as far as he goes, then this is as far as he can go.
    – schroeder
    Mar 26, 2020 at 13:25

4 Answers 4

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There is no indication they were spying on you. All information they had was publicly available. Saying they know your IP address is like saying they know your phone number after you called them. I mean yeah, you'd have to have a phone with a display to know the callers number, but that's not exactly a hacking tool.

Your IP address is no secret. To the contrary, everybody you connect to on the internet has to know your IP address, otherwise you cannot send or receive anything.

So can a random guy who tells you they know the equivalent of your phone number really hack you? Nobody knows. But it seems unlikely. Just imagine you get threatened by someone telling you "I know your phone number". That's not a credible threat for anybody knowing anything about phones. Sounds like someone played you.

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A modified version of Kik messenger could be able to pose a security threat to other users, however there could be limitations though. For example, on a normal Kik messenger you cannot style your messages by customizing your own messages with HTML or java script (we are referring at the user level). A modified version of Kik messenger can do anything, and could send anything. Thus the JavaScript could contain malicious code. The only limiting factor on the possibility of a recipient getting this malicious message, is if the Kik messenger servers are designed to detect and prevent such types of malicious messages reaching the recipient/target.

Another example of how a modified version of Kik messenger could be able to pose a security threat, is if it can by pass any upload file type restrictions. Some social media sites/apps have stopped or made some limitations on some types of file formats that can be uploaded or sent. This is because some file formats can be executable files that could contain malicious software that a non-tech savvy user may not realize.

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A security threat, yes, but specifically a privacy threat is likely limited to finding out who lurks.

There are exploits that allow one user to break/brick a kik account of another user in a way that its no longer possible to use that account anymore for a given time which could be years. Basically banning someone forever. Other things like lagging and crashes are also possible.

Unfortunately all these things appear to be still possible.

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All of these features are possible with multiple Kik mods. The most common of which is called "Blue Pirho", and there are much more malicious exploits that can be executed with Pirho mods, such as permanently bricking or even banning an account.

Typically an IP grabber will have a blank image or a strange timestamp (like 2022) and are easy to spot.

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