So they can steal your Instagram account with a single photo

Instagram, the world's most popular photography social network, has a serious vulnerability problem. During the last few hours a bug has been discovered that allows any hacker to have full control over your account: from viewing your profile to reading your private messages. The problem is access: the attacker in question only needs a photograph.

Check Point, one of the most important cybersecurity companies worldwide, has detected this serious vulnerability on Instagram, which has already been reported to Facebook so that they can correct it as soon as possible and thus prevent the theft of data accounts in the social network.The bug is found in the 'Mozjpeg' tool, an open source image processing system that is used in the application so that users can post photos to their profileThe hacker can make use of this tool through a simple infected image and with a very simple process.

Just send an email to the victim with the image attached and wait for the victim to download it to her phone. It must be taken into account that many of the applications allow automatic downloading, so perhaps just by opening the image it is automatically saved in the internal memory of our mobile. When the image is in the internal memory, all it takes is for the user to open the Instagram app and the malicious upload process will start automatically, without the victim knowing notice.

Once the process is complete, the hacker has full access to the account.This means that he is able to upload or delete photos, access conversations, profile settings or even change the password to steal our account In addition, through The Instagram app can have access to the images from our gallery or our contacts, since the social network has this type of permission to be able to upload images or videos to our profile.

According to Check Point, it is common to see these types of security problems in such important applications, especially if they use third-party services and are open sourceOften these services are not as securely secure and it can be easy to find a 'back door'.

How to prevent your Instagram account from being stolen

Apparently this problem has already been fixed via a security patchSo I advise you to update the application through Google Play or the App Store. In addition, you should also take into account a series of tips to avoid problems in the future.

First of all, it is best to change your account password more often. This will prevent possible malicious logins. It is also advisable not to open suspicious emails that have any attachments You can delete them directly or move them to the 'Spam' folder of your inbox. On the other hand, think carefully about the permissions you accept on Instagram. If you are a user who does not usually post photos or Stories, it is best not to grant camera or gallery permissions, since the attacker could access your files through the app.

Lastly, remember to check for the latest app updates,as they can fix important security flaws, like the one mentioned above.