AfterDawn: Tech news

WhatsApp for Android has vulnerability that could make your conversations public to other apps

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 12 Mar 2014 9:57 User comments (3)

WhatsApp for Android has vulnerability that could make your conversations public to other apps

It has been discovered that popular cross-platform messenger WhatsApp has a vulneranability that could make Android users susceptible to their conversations being read by other apps.
Even with the company's major update for Android this week, Bas Bosschert, CTO at DoubleThink, has posted a method to accessing WhatsApp chats, using an exploit in the service's encryption.

Bosschert (via TCrunch) explains how it works:

"WhatsApp for Android stores conversations on the phone's SD card, which is accessible by many other apps on the phone as long as the user gives those apps the permissions they ask for (many apps ask for full access to the phone). This is an infrastructure issue for Android more than a gaping security flaw on the part of WhatsApp.



From there, a malicious app could access the WhatsApp conversation database. Savvy users will note that this is hardly a hack but more of a problem with Android's data sandboxing system."


The CTO built a test app to try out his method, using a distracting splash screen to entertain users while their conversations were being taken. More recently, WhatsApp has patched the database to block the SQLite hack, but Bosschert built his own custom Python script which can once again decrypt the database.

Previous Next  

3 user comments

114.3.2014 10:16

I was about to say that the logs was always there but they already stated in the article that its not really a hack.

214.3.2014 23:14

Prefer the security of BBM anyway...

316.3.2014 10:20

Seriously why do they not solve these issues I bugs occur later but damn

Comments have been disabled for this article.

Latest news

Roomba Combo j7+ review - Clever trick allows robot vacuum finally to tackle home with rugs and carpets Roomba Combo j7+ review - Clever trick allows robot vacuum finally to tackle home with rugs and carpets (06 Jun 2023 9:19)
Roomba Combo j7+ is the very first Roomba model to combine robot vacuum with mopping features. And Roomba Combo j7+ does all that with a very clever trick, which tackles the problem with mopping and carpets. But is it any good? We found out.
Neato, the robot vacuum company, ends its operations Neato, the robot vacuum company, ends its operations (02 May 2023 3:38)
Neato Robotics has ceased its operations. American robot vacuum pioneer founded in 2005 has finally called it quits and company will cease its operations and sales. Only a skeleton crew will remain who will keep the servers running until 2028.
5 user comments
How to Send Messages to Yourself on WhatsApp How to Send Messages to Yourself on WhatsApp (20 Mar 2023 1:25)
The world's most popular messaging platform, Meta-owned WhatsApp has enabled sending messages to yourself. While at first, this might seem like an odd feature, it can be very useful in a lot of situations. ....
18 user comments
How to Enable Bluetooth on Stadia Controller How to Enable Bluetooth on Stadia Controller (11 Feb 2023 1:04)
Google shut down its streaming game service Stadia late last month and this means that some people have Stadia controllers lying around that seem to be of no use. That is fortunately not the ....
2 user comments
Guide: How to Kick Unwanted Guests from Your Netflix Account Guide: How to Kick Unwanted Guests from Your Netflix Account (26 Jan 2023 2:14)
Sharing a Netflix account with a person in a different location is possible and indeed very common, although the company doesn't necessarily enjoy this behavior from their customers. However, ....

News archive