This WhatsApp bug allows hackers to gain access to your phone! Here’s how you can avoid it

A major security flaw has been detected in popular instant messaging app WhatsApp that could affect both iPhone and Android smartphone users.

The security firm Check Point Research revealed that the security flaw comes from a WhatsApp image filter bug. The WhatsApp bug allows hackers to steal user’s personal information.

And WhatsApp has already fixed the security flaw. In case, it reappears again on your phone, you should know about it.

What is this new WhatsApp bug?

According to the security firm the Facebook-owned messaging app has detected an “out of bounds, read-write vulnerability” and fixed it.

With the security flaw, a hacker could have access to read sensitive information from WhatsApp memory.

How does it affects users

As per reports, the security flaw uses WhatsApp image filters to send a maliciously crafted image that will affect the users’ devices and lets the cyber criminal into the device.

After gaining access to the user’s smartphone, the hackers invades the personal accounts and read private and secret information from WhatsApp’s memory.

Researchers Dikla Barda & Gal Elbaz from the security firm said that the hacker gets access to WhatsApp memory when a user applied a WhatsApp filter to the image.

The bug is fixed

However, WhatsApp did not detect any evidence that this flaw/vulnerability is being misused and fixed the flaw so users are safe from the bug.

WhatsApp released a statement regarding this security flaw in its February security advisory for CVE-2020-1910 that reads, “A missing bounds check in WhatsApp for Android prior to v2.21.1.13 and WhatsApp Business for Android prior to v2.21.1.13 could have allowed out-of-bounds read and write if a user applied specific image filters to a specially crafted image and sent the resulting image.”

According to the security firm, the security flaw was reported to Whatsapp on November 10, 2020 and the app acknowledged the issue and found a fix for the flaw. WhatsApp has released a fix for the vulnerability in its version 2.21.1.13 which was made available in January this year.

Now, users can stay assured that they are safe from this flaw as most of the WhatsApp users are using a recent version of the app. If you dont have the WhatsApp version 2.21.1.13 then you should upgrade it to avoid the security flaw.