Spotify at the moment rolled out a local direct messaging function, Messages, for each Free and Premium customers aged 16+ in choose markets on cellular.
This long-awaited addition creates a devoted in-app area to share tracks, podcasts, and audiobooks, supercharging word-of-mouth suggestions. Nonetheless, safety researchers warn that the brand new chat API might introduce assault vectors if not rigorously secured.
Launching August 26, 2025, Messages centralizes in-app sharing. Customers faucet the share icon within the Now Taking part in view, choose a contact, and ship content material with textual content and emoji reactions.
Conversations reside below the person’s profile menu, and Spotify suggests message recipients based mostly on earlier interactions—collaborative playlists, Jams classes, or Household and Duo plans.
Below the hood, Messages depends on a RESTful API over HTTPS (TLS 1.3) with JSON Internet Tokens (JWT) for session authentication.
Spotify enforces industry-standard encryption in transit and at relaxation, and proactive scanning for dangerous or unlawful content material per its Phrases of Use and Platform Guidelines.
Customers can settle for or reject message requests, block senders, or disable Messages completely through Settings.
Messaging Characteristic
Potential Exploits
Safety analysts warning that any messaging system introduces threats if not meticulously secured. Key dangers embrace:
Cross-Website Scripting (XSS), if Spotify’s shopper fails to sanitize message fields correctly, an attacker might inject JavaScript payloads that execute when the recipient views the chat.
Cross-Website Request Forgery (CSRF), an attacker might ship spam or phishing hyperlinks to the sufferer’s contacts.
Malicious code hosted on a phishing web page would possibly lure customers to grant permissions through OAuth and seize their entry tokens.
Spotify URIs may very well be changed with attacker-controlled deep-link schemes that redirect customers to malicious web sites or immediate unintended app habits.
Mitigation methods embrace strict enter validation, implementing SameSite=strict cookies, imposing CSP headers, and rotating refresh tokens on suspicious exercise.
As Messages continues its world rollout, each Spotify and its person base should stability seamless social sharing with rigorous safety hygiene to make sure the chat function stays a boon for discovery with out changing into a vector for compromise.
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