WhatsApp vulnerability allows hackers to block the application

The cybersecurity company Check Point discovered a critical vulnerability in WhatsApp that allows cybercriminals to block the app and prevent users from using it by sending a malicious message to a group chat and blocking the application to all group members.

Check Point researchers came up with this after inspecting communications between WhatsApp and WhatsApp Web. As the company explained in a statement, when a member of a WhatsApp group sends a message to a group, the app examines the “participant” parameter to identify who sent the message.

To be able to use the application again, this bug requires you to uninstall and reinstall WhatsApp. You also have to delete the infected group, so you lose the history and the shared files, among other things.

With this vulnerability, cybercriminals can also create a destructive loop within the app by infiltrating a group chat, modifying specific message parameters and generating an unstoppable block that affects all group members.

To protect against this failure, users can download version 2.19.58 of WhatsApp or later, launched in August and that has a security patch and incorporates new controls to prevent people from being added to unwanted groups.

K. Tovar

Source: La Sexta