Due to a bug in the Android app, your Slack password may have been compromised. You should change your account password now.
If you are a member of a work team, whether, worldwide or in another country, you are probably using Slack, one of the most famous collaborative work applications for teams. If you have it installed on your computer, then we have bad news for you: You should change the password now.
A bug in the app, as reported by Android Police, has caused that from December 21 to January 21 the credentials of the app’s users have been exposed to other apps on their devices. Slack has already sent an email to users, asking them for a password change.
The error caused these login credentials to be stored in unencrypted text, which could allow an app to access that information if required, putting Slack users’ privacy at risk.
Change your Slack password now
In an email sent to its, users Slack asks for a password change from users. “We are taking these steps as a precaution due to a bug we have discovered. There is no evidence that there has been any unauthorized or third party access to this account. Maintaining the security of your computer and the privacy of your communications is vital to us.”
The email explains that on Dec. 21, 2020, “Slack introduced a bug that caused some versions of our Android app to log user credentials in clear text on your device. As a result, any app that had access to that information could collect it.
The problem was fixed on January 21 of this year, and a new version of Slack for Android has been released. Slack has blocked the use of the previously affected versions, and users can now download the new version through the Google Play Store.
To change the password, just click either on the link in the Slack email (which is secure) or login to the Slack website and reset the password. It is also possible to do it from within the app.
Clear the application data
Additionally, Slack is asking its users to clear data from the Android app to delete the records that are still stored on the phone. There are several ways to do this, but the simplest way is to go to the phone settings, go to “Apps”, search for “Slack”, go to “Storage” and click on “Clear data”. You don’t need to uninstall the app, although this is also a quick way to do it.
If you do this procedure, remember that you will have to log in to Slack again with your new password, so it is important that you remember it well.
