A set of WhatsApp flaws discovered a year ago remains unresolved and may allow messages exchanged in the application to be altered by hackers. According to security firm Checkpoint, two of the three messenger vulnerabilities revealed in August 2018 have not yet been fixed. According to experts, the bugs on the platform would allow to change the identity and change the content of messages sent by someone in the chat.
In a note sent to The Next Web, Facebook denies that the alleged breaches open the way to attacks. We have carefully looked into this issue for a year and it is false to suggest that there is a security vulnerability we provided in WhatsApp. The scenario described is merely the equivalent of changing the content in an email response to make it look like something a person didn't write, explained the social network. The brand suggests that the change demonstrated by Checkpoint analysts can easily be identified by the most attentive user.
WhatsApp Fails to Modify Messages with Responder Tool
WhatsApp Fails to Spoof User Messages, Says Checkpoint Security Firm Photo: Anna Kellen Bull / dnetc
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According to WhatsApp, end-to-end application encryption is sufficient to protect users from intrusion. Checkpoint experts, however, say they have found a way to circumvent security and get the keys that make them right to read chats. By exploiting a weakness in WhatsApp Web, a hacker could poke around the victim's conversations and then change the content of sent messages.
The vulnerability would have great potential for generating fake news in WhatsApp groups, as an attacker could spoof messages and make it difficult to identify misinformation. In 2018, the messenger was at the center of false news campaigns during the elections in Brazil.
At the time, the app banned hundreds of thousands of accounts for triggering mass messages. The company also provided a counterfeit content reporting channel, restricted message forwarding, and recently started showing when certain text, photo, or video was forwarded many times.
Via Checkpoint and The Next Web
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