Threat actors could take advantage of severe vulnerabilities in the immensely popular WhatsApp messaging application in order to tamper with message replies and sender identities, or to get victims to share information meant for a private chat in a group conversation, Check Point researchers warn.
The issues were first reported in August of last year and while WhatsApp, which is owned by Facebook, has released a patch for one vulnerability, two other flaws remain unfixed. Oded Vanunu of Check Point says that the vulnerabilities should be fixed as soon as possible because threat actors could use them to carry out various malicious activities like spreading fake news and cyber scams. He points out that “WhatsApp is not just an application. It is an infrastructure of more than 1.5 billion users with more than 56 billion messages per day.”
Read more: WhatsApp Messages Can Be Intercepted, Manipulated