The developers who are in charge of WhatsApp have started rolling out a new update that takes care of a major security issue that made it possible for hackers to basically hijack the app. The worst thing about this security issue is that the only thing that the victim needed to do was to answer an incoming video call. Furthermore, hackers could exploit this issue on both the Android and iOS versions of WhatsApp. Fortunately, today’s update is taking care of the security flaw.
WhatsApp Security Flaw
The way this security flaw worked was that hackers could send malformed Real-Time Transport Protocol packets which would open when the victim answered the video call. Seconds after the victim answered the video call, the Real-Time Transport Protocol packets would attack and corrupt the app’s heap memory.
WhatsApp Needs to Move Faster
Even though WhatsApp’s developers are now rolling out an update that takes care of this security flaw, we have to mention that WhatsApp needs to move faster. The reason we are saying this is because the security flaw which allowed hackers to hijack both the iOS and Android version of the app was found back in August by Natalie Silvanovich who is a security researcher that works for Google.
Better Late Than Never
The update arrived later than expected, but all that matters is that it’s finally here. In addition, a spokesperson for WhatsApp said that there aren’t any reports to showcase that hackers actually used this exploit in “the wild” and that the only ones who exploited it are security researchers who were looking for a way to fix it.
Another important thing we need to mention is that the security flaw doesn’t necessarily mean that WhatsApp is vulnerable to hackers attacks, just that users need to be more careful about what type of links they open because hackers are always coming up with new ideas.
