WhatsApp flaw infringes group chats and crashes smartphones of users

Popular messaging app is facing another security flaw. Researchers at the cybersecurity company Check Point Software Technology at Israel on December 17, 2019 revealed about a few malicious actors crashing in to group chats on WhatsApp Messenger. The hackers here send a malicious chat message in the group that would eventually crash the smartphones of all the members who are in that particular chat group. The only way to regain access to the app is to uninstall the application and then reinstall the application.

The flaw was pointed out by the Check Point Research which is an intelligence arm of the company. WhatsApp is a free platform and has about 1.5 billion users across the globe. It also has more than one billion WhatsApp groups and every group can have up to 256 users. In order to attack, the hacker will have to be a part of the target group on WhatsApp. The hackers, who intend to crash the app permanently, will have to access the app through WhatsApp Web. They access the debugging tool on the browser and edit a few message parameters. An edited text is then sent on the group, which causes a crash for the members and the users then fail to access any of the functions on the instant messaging app.

Oded Vanunu, the head of product vulnerability said that the instant messaging service is one of the most used services in the world and is accessed by individuals as well as businesses and the capacity to stop people using the service can become a powerful tool for the hackers. Vanunu has advised that all the WhatsApp users must upgrade to the latest version of the software in their respective devices.

The researchers have also found out about the loop hole and have also quickly developed a fix for the concerning issue. WhatsApp has recently also launched a feature that allows the users to prevent others to add them to unwanted groups.

Photo Credits: Fortune