Just a few days have passed when Baba Ramdev launched his free messaging app named Kimbho to compete with WhatsApp in India. As it happens in the Indian market, duplicates have already started to play with the minds of smartphone users.
Anyone who searches Kimbho on app store can clearly see multiple apps with similar names like “Kimbho Bliss Indian app of Yoga, Meditation, Sleep”, Kimbho Swadesi Indian App, Kimbho, Kimbho Messenger: swadeshi app, etc.
Experts believe that the original app had some security issues and was removed from the play store. In the meantime till the original app gets back, other developers are taking the benefit of the situation.
“The Indian security community was able to find multiple critical security issues in the Kimbho app within hours of the launch. It was evident that the app was built by developers who had zero idea about security,” said Rahul Sasi, founder and chief technology officer at machine learning based cloud security company CloudSek.
“The original app had zero security level. Many ports were open, and even chat admin was easy to access,” said Manan Shah, founder, and CEO of Gujarat based cybersecurity firm Avalance Global Solutions.
The French security researcher who goes by the name of Elliot Alderson on Twitter wrote:
#Indian #android #developers are fast. If you search #Kimbho on the PlayStore you will find a lot of fake apps. They renamed their apps with #Khombi in the title. pic.twitter.com/QbPPUwRPG1
— Elliot Alderson (@fs0c131y) June 1, 2018
He is the same guy who made fun of Kimbho’s security issues and called it a copy of some other app.
Ok, I will stop here. The #Kimbho #android #app is a security disaster. I can access the messages of all the users…🤦♂️
— Elliot Alderson (@fs0c131y) May 30, 2018
The word Kimbho has been taken from Sanskrit language and means “what’s up?” Baba Ramdev looks confident with his move but the comments on Twitter are telling a totally different story.
If you plan to install #Kimbho pls delete my contact from your phone. With all this permission ramdev will be spying on ur phone pic.twitter.com/ABQGuybuQ7
— Riyaz Ahmed (@simpleriyaz) May 30, 2018
Dear @yogrishiramdev and @tijarawala… While on Android #Kimbho app says its from Patanjali, on iOS it says its from Appdios…? Did they develop it for Patanjali? Also, How does the app have Mawra Hocane's pic in the ad on play store? If you know what I mean. pic.twitter.com/x5bqPaiH0U
— Brijesh Deb 🇮🇳 (@brijeshdeb) May 30, 2018
Meet the new #Kimbho App for chats!!! Getting on it now!!! It claims to be desi but looks very Chinese and somehow I think 🤔 it’s an existing IM app that’s now renamed. Let’s see whether I have friends on this app to chat with. ‘Bolo’ agar yeh Satya hai toh!!! pic.twitter.com/3Z2V9TpBtZ
— Siddhartha Sharma (@SidnChips) May 31, 2018
Kimbho’s official account says that due to the reason of extremely heavy traffic the app was withdrawn and it will be back soon with new updates. It was also said that the launched app was a trial version which warned users against the several fake apps doing the rounds.
The idea is definately good to bring a local app like WhatsApp but its execution should be done in a way that users feel safe and can use it for some additional features that WhatsApp lacks currently.
