In August, Natalie Silvanovich, a researcher from Google’s Project Zero security team, detected a severe security flaw in WhatsApp video calls function. The error, which affected both Apple and Android versions of the renowned instant messaging app, allowed hackers to control the application via video calls.
According to the investigator, the bug allowed cybercriminals to take control of WhatsApp accounts.
“This is a memory corruption error in the implementation of WhatsApp’s non-WebRTC video conferencing. Therefore, this bug did not affect WhatsApp versions for the web, as it is based on the WebRTC protocol,” Silvanovich said.
Upgrade your WhatsApp to the latest version as soon as possible to get rid of the security flaw
Since August, the WhatsApp’s security team has been working on a solution. However, only on September 28th, in the case of WhatsApp for Android, and October 3rd for the iOS variant, WhatsApp came up with a solution to this issue. Also, there is no evidence that anyone has been a victim of this security flaw.
In a statement, a WhatsApp spokesman has confirmed that the instant messaging app has been able to tackle this error once and for all. “We publish a solution to the latest version of WhatsApp to solve this problem. For the same reason, and in order to avoid being a victim of an attack of this size, it is recommended that you update the application,” the spokesman said.
To upgrade WhatsApp to the latest version, just go to your phone’s app store (Google Play on Android or App Store on iOS) and search the instant messaging platform via the search engine or access the “My Apps” sections. On the other hand, you can also allow the installed applications to update automatically, so you don’t have to worry about not running the latest versions of your favorite apps.