Strava exposes French troops… again
French journalists were able to locate an aircraft carrier through a service member using fitness app Strava – a known security flaw that hasn’t been fixed.
Aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle. Photo by Francesco Militello Mirto/NurPhoto/Getty Images
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French journalists were able to locate an aircraft carrier through a service member using fitness app Strava – a known security flaw that hasn’t been fixed.
Journalists at Le Monde tracked the French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle as it was moving in the Mediterranean because a sailor jogging on the deck was recording his run on Strava.
Since the officer’s profile on the fitness app was set to “public,” his run on March 13th – and location – was visible to anyone. It means that anyone could also see the aircraft carrier’s exact location, almost in real time.
Charles de Gaulle and its escort group were located northwest of Cyprus and around 100 kilometers (62 miles) from the Turkish coast, according to Le Monde.
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The presence of the French carrier strike group in the region, made up of at least three frigates and a supply ship in addition to the aircraft carrier, was not a secret. French President Emmanuel Macron announced the deployment on March 3rd, just days after Israel and the US attacked Iran.
At the time, France’s only aircraft carrier was in the Baltic Sea, taking part in Nato exercises and was expected to remain there until May, according to Le Monde. Its passage through the Strait of Gibraltar was also announced publicly on March 6th.
However, the app also previously exposed the locations of troops that the military would prefer to keep confidential.
Last year, Le Monde was able to locate France’s nuclear submarines after the crew publicly shared workouts via the Strava app, inadvertently disclosing sensitive patrol schedule information.
The revelation is part of the newspaper’s larger “Stravaleaks” series after it first reported the vulnerability in 2024. That it was able to track French troops again – two years later – suggests the military may have failed to address the security flaw.
As part of its investigation, Le Monde was also able to track the movements of the French president’s bodyguards, as well as those of Russian President Vladimir Putin and members of the US Secret Service, along with the locations of thousands of Israeli soldiers.
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