This latest WhatsApp update is the stuff of nightmares; a recently-discovered glitch could allow a third-party to completely change the text you’ve sent.
It’s bad news for the application, which prides itself on secrecy. Their “end-to-end” encryption tools keep the contents of your messages locked solely between you and your recipients. However, Check Point Research have discovered how scammers can circumvent this usually tight security feature.
“We recently unveiled new vulnerabilities in the popular messaging application that could allow threat actors to intercept and manipulate messages sent in both private and group conversations, giving attackers immense power to create and spread misinformation from what appear to be trusted sources.”
WhatsApp update: How are my messages manipulated?
Through a super-complicated decryption process, a user with malicious intent can target their victim by using one of the following three methods:
Change the identity of a message’s sender by using the “quote feature”.
Alter what somebody has already written so it appears as something different for the recipient.
It can also make your private messages public within a group chat. That could be fatal.
The potential scenarios are frightening. Messaging your boss for something quick? That could be manipulated to make it look like you’ve told them to stuff the job.
Got some news you need to keep secret from friends and family? Well, that could be appearing on their screens just seconds after you thought you’d shared it solely in confidence.
How does it work?
In these situations, the attacker is able to manipulate the chat by sending a message back to themselves on behalf of the other person, as if it had come from them. By doing so, it would be possible to incriminate a person, or close a fraudulent deal, for example.
The implications are devastating for WhatsApp, who are now working to prevent this loophole being used for mischevious purposes. Check Point Research have shared all their findings with the Facebook-owned giants, and a resolution will be welcome sooner rather than later.
We won’t even pretend to know how high-level hacking works, which is why we’ve got a video on-hand to demonstrate how this security glitch can be exploited. If you’re a tech whizz, there’s also a step-by-step process of how it’s done here.
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