WhatsApp is the Globe's leading messenger with two billion users sending 100 billion messages every day with no other platform coming close. However, WhatsApp settings are not as secure as you think.
The app built its user base by providing a safe alternative to SMS and publicizing the accessibility of end-to-end encoding.
However, a new series of text bombs or "crash codes" have been detected, resulting in WhatsApp continually crashing on both iPhone and Android phones.
Encrypted messages containing what appears to be a random series of strange characters result in rendering problems for WhatsApp and can cause a loop of crashes, reported TechRadar.
Plenty of talks also went down recently regarding a new way to exploit the application and bypass the end-to-end encryption that WhatsApp lauds itself with.
However, the problem would reportedly be fixed long before anything transpires, reported Android Central.
Security appears to remain central to the WhatsApp proposition. Privacy and security are reportedly in their "DNA."
WhatsApp settings that could pose harm
Default Saved Images
The images and videos you are sent that are automatically downloaded to your smartphone may not always be a good idea due to the default setting. Photos could act like a "Trojan horse" and contain a code that could make users hijack your phone, reported The Sun.
Crash Codes
vCards (virtual contact cards) and undecipherable messages delivery crash codes could also be manipulated for use. Victims might have to uninstall and reinstall WhatsApp. However, this means potentially losing chat history.
Group Chat Flaw
At Ruhr-Universität in Bochum, Germany, researchers Christian Mainka, Paul Rösler, and Jörg Schwenk released a research paper that found a strange flaw in WhatsApp's group chat administration. Apparently, it is theoretically probable for a stranger to add themselves to a WhatsApp group chat.
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The dilemma is that in WhatsApp's servers, it is not properly permitting those group management requests.
Backups
This is especially evident for new iPhone 12 users right now. When you move your WhatsApp account from your old device to a new phone, you would be directed to use WhatsApp's iCloud backup option to transmit your message history, settings, and media. Such backups are not protected by WhatsApp's end-to-end conversion into code.
WhatsApp's iCloud Backup
Unfortunately, WhatsApp's iCloud backup option cannot provide the app's end-to-end encryption. When the chats are moved to iCloud, the responsibility rests on Apple.
Law enforcement can ask to see the chats and be allowed to get them if this would transpire.
Dangerous Codes
The harmful codes are being shared in forums online. App users are being advised not to send them to people even as a mere joke.
According to Ray Walsh, a digital privacy expert at ProPrivacy, "Once the message has been received, the app will crash, and even closing and restarting the app will not fix the issue. The current spate of text bomb messages appears to have originated in Brazil; however, it is now spreading globally."
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