Security Researchers Discover Vulnerabilities In WhatsApp And Telegram

If you are using either WhatsApp or Telegram’s messaging apps, it seems that security researchers over at Check Point have discovered (via 9to5Mac) some security vulnerabilities that could potentially allow a hacker to take over your account, which we have to admit sounds pretty scary.

According to Check Point, they claim that all it takes is for a malicious image file to be sent to the target. “From that point, the attacker can gain full access to the user’s account and account data. The attacker can then send the malicious file to the all victim’s contacts, opening a dangerous door to a potentially widespread attack over the WhatsApp and Telegram networks.” Check Point also claims to have disclosed this problem to WhatsApp and Telegram, in which both companies acknowledged the issue and have since developed a fix for them shortly after.

However we should note that Telegram has since denied that the report from Check Point wasn’t true, and that you can’t take over someone’s Telegram account simply by sending a photo. Instead the company admits that there was another vulnerability that they claim has since been fixed, and has different implications from what’s currently being reported.

WhatsApp has yet to publicly confirm if this was a vulnerability that has since been patched, but assuming that Check Point’s report is accurate, it should have been and all you have to do is relaunch the web version of either app and you should be good to go. In the meantime you can check out the videos above to see the vulnerability being exploited for demo purposes.

Tyler Lee
Categories: Cellphones
Tags: Apps, Security, telegram, Whatsapp