They discover how to block the WhatsApp app with a single message
A new vulnerability is discovered in the operation of the messaging application of WhatsApp And it seems that this tool is going to continue giving people something to talk about for a long time. Of course, this time it is not a failure that puts the security or privacy of the user at risk Rather it is a bad operation that can be exploited as a prank, or as a way to get make it disappear sensitive information from a chat or conversation
This is a variant of the heavy joke that we discussed a long time ago in TuexpertoAPPS In it we learned that it was possible to send a full message of emoticons Emoji until the application and the terminal of a contact are saturated. Well, this new vulnerability discovered by two 17-year-old security analysts from India, Indrajeet Bhuyan and Saurav Kar, uses a similar technique to crash the application by WhatsApp. To the point of preventing it from working properly every time you try to access the cluttered conversation, constantly forcing it to closeof the application.
It seems to be enough to create a message of no less than 2,000 words with a certain type of charactersSomething that manages to create a file of just 2 Kb in weight, but that WhatsApp cannot process, thus reaching its own closure. In this way, when sending the message, it is possible to block the conversation of a friend or contact of WhatsApp The interlocutor only receives the message and, when trying to enter in chat, you are forced to close the application because of a bug coming from this vulnerability. Something that happens continuously until you don't delete the chat itself
With this, a more than annoying result is achieved. A malfunction of the interlocutor's messaging application. However, those responsible for this bug have also contacted WhatsApp to alert them of other practical applications that this macro message could have. And the only solution to prevent the WhatsApp application from constantly blocking and closing is to delete the chat This would mean get rid of content such as photos, videos and messages sent through said conversation and, therefore, of the backup that is later saved with all the changes. Useful for forcibly preserving the privacy of information shared in a chat, but could be used to try to make disappear evidence
Of course, keep in mind that messages deleted in WhatsApp are not completely eliminated, there are still traces of them and forms to recover them. And it seems that WhatsApp is not willing to make information disappear without further ado. Of course, for this it is necessary to have advanced computer knowledge and the precise tools The question is whether this failure would also affect the application servers and their service if, at some point, it morphs into some kind of viral joke.
At the moment the bug is only known to affect terminals Android in the latest versions of WhatsApp We will have to wait for those responsible for the application to launch a new version that corrects this vulnerability, hoping not to be, meanwhile , the recipients of this harmful message.
