Security News > 2022 > April > Cisco's Webex app phoned home audio telemetry even when muted

Boffins at two US universities have found that muting popular native video-conferencing apps fails to disable device microphones - and that these apps have the ability to access audio data when muted, or actually do so.

One app transmits statistics of the audio to its telemetry servers while the app is muted.

"One app transmits statistics of the audio to its telemetry servers while the app is muted."

The researchers found that all of these apps had the ability to capture audio when the mic is muted but most did not take advantage of this capability.

Cisco told The Register that it altered Webex after the researchers got in touch so that it no longer transmits microphone telemetry data.

"Webex uses microphone telemetry data to tell a user they are muted, referred to as the 'mute notification' feature. Cisco takes the security of its products very seriously, and this is not a vulnerability in Webex." .

News URL

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2022/04/14/muting_ciscos_webex_app_doesnt/