Mobile security research firm, Check Point, has revealed a new bug in messaging service, WhatsApp. The bug appears to affect only WhatsApp Web has the potential to allow ransomware and malicious applications on your device.
The vulnerability affects only the web-based version of the service.
Check Point alerted WhatsApp about the problem on 21 August and a week later it issued a fix.
Check Point urged users to update their WhatsApp software immediately to take advantage of the fix.
There are currently over 200 million active users of the web app, according to statistics released by the company this year. This compares to 900 million users of the smartphone app.
The bug takes advantage of the way the service handles VCards and can use it as a backdoor to install malicious applications on your phone. VCards are essentially business card files containing contact information. Given the innocuous appearance of the file, users might very easily end up opening these files.
