TECH

WhatsApp launches informational site on security flaws in messenger

WhatsApp launches this Thursday, 3, a new website on digital security on the platform, which will contain a list of security updates in the messenger. Initially, six vulnerabilities found on the platform will be disclosed, which have already been fixed by the Facebook security team, which owns WhatsApp.
According to Nathaniel Gleicher, director of cybersecurity policy at Facebook, the team works with internal and external researchers to find security holes and therefore wants to use the channel to more regularly disclose bug fixes in the app. Also according to Gleicher, there are currently practices and policies in app stores that prevent this information from being disseminated more effectively when WhatsApp undergoes an update as well.
“We are publicizing six loopholes that we found in previous versions that have already been fixed. We have no evidence that these flaws were exploited before they were fixed by the team, ”said Gleicher, who said that most of them were resolved on the same day they were discovered. One of the flaws, for example, allowed to see the IP address of users by sending specific stickers.
The flaws disclosed on Thursday are part of a set that had not yet been disclosed by WhatsApp. Gleicher stated that old flaws, which have already been addressed by the application publicly, will not be published in this wave, but that the company must present a file with loopholes already corrected to assist the work of researchers and concentrate information in the same dissemination channel.
One of the app's best-known security flaws happened in 2019, with a loophole that allowed attackers to access users' devices remotely. The suspicion, at the time, is that the invasion was due to a loophole that installed the Pegasus software, developed by the Israeli company NSO Group, which denied involvement in the case. WhatsApp even issued a statement asking users of the platform to update the application and said the flaw had "the characteristics of a private company that supposedly works with governments" and that delivers spyware that takes over the functions of smartphone operating systems.

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