WhatsApp bug lets hackers into your phone! Just do this to avoid dangerous flaw

WhatsApp bug: Like everything else in the world of technology, WhatsApp app is also prone to flaws that can affect user security and privacy. One such massive WhatsApp flaw has just been revealed that impacts both iPhone and Android smartphone users. A security firm has revealed a WhatsApp image filter bug that could significantly harm users. While the bad news is indeed, shocking, the good news is that WhatsApp has managed to fix the security flaw. This WhatsApp bug allowed hackers to access personal information.

According to Check Point Research, the security firm that discovered the WhatsApp flaw, the Facebook-owned messaging app has fixed an “out of bounds, read-write vulnerability” that could have allowed a hacker to read sensitive information from WhatsApp memory. The security flaw involved the use of WhatsApp image filters that could be misused by an attacker by sending a maliciously crafted image that would impact the users' devices, allowing the cyber criminal to gain access to personal accounts and read information from WhatsApp's memory.

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Researchers Dikla Barda & Gal Elbaz from the security firm discovered that if the user applied a WhatsApp filter to the image, the hacker could gain access to WhatsApp memory which can contain important data. While this is a theoretical vulnerability and WhatsApp did not see any evidence of this vulnerability being misused, the company fixed the flaw so users should be safe from further misuse of the bug.

“A missing bounds check in WhatsApp for Android prior to v2.21.1.13 and WhatsApp Business for Android prior to v2.21.1.13 could have allowed out-of-bounds read and write if a user applied specific image filters to a specially crafted image and sent the resulting image,” WhatsApp stated in its February security advisory for CVE-2020-1910.

The security flaw was disclosed to Whatsapp on November 10, 2020, according to the security firm. WhatsApp later acknowledged the issue and issued a fix which was available in WhatsApp version 2.21.1.13 which was made available in January this year. As WhatsApp now blocks users that are not running a recent version of the app, it is safe to assume that all WhatsApp users are now protected from this flaw, without any action needed from their end.