According to a new report by CheckPoint, WhatsApp has placed an unintentional terror in your smartphone with a new security flaw which could jeopardize the users personal information and hack into their informational space on their smartphones. The problem has been eminent for quite a long time and the hackers found out a way to enter in your digital personal space through the loop hole of the WhatsApp. The problem, however is now fixed by WhatsApp but still it has remarkably given the status of being a hackable app at one point of time.
The issue is very alarming due to the fact that around 200 million of the users access WhatsApp through their PCs.
How it is done?
The hacking is quite easy for the hacker, all they need is the number of the victim with the associated account. Here are a few screenshots which gives a glimpse of the hacking way.
An account for example:
A hacked account with vCard trick
The error rectification was done by the WhatsApp team diligently and very efficiently. The response timeline according to the checkpoint is stated below:
August 21, 2015 – Issue first stated and disclosed to the WhatsApp security team.
August 23, 2015 – First response received.
August 27, 2015 – WhatsApp rolls out fixed web clients (v0.1.4481)
September 8, 2015 – Public disclosure
The importance of security in an app like that of WhatsApp:
Its not only about WhatsApp, but the security issue lies all around the circle of all the social media apps. The importance of personal information is more than important present on the list of priority an app have for its technical efficiency. The personal information is not only limited to the images and text but also to the confidential data shared by various business professionals over this app. Not only this, an app is trusted for the kind of the security level it have. After all, the highest level of the contribution in making of a brand is the value and the trust factor.
The loop hole was discovered by the Check Point security researcher Kasif Dekel. The attacker or the hacker needed to do was to send a simple vCard which have a malicious code. This malicious code, if opened, gives the hacker the accessibility to the victim’s system.
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