- Meta found a vulnerability in WhatsApp for Windows
- It affects all older versions and allows hackers to trick people into running .exe files
- The error lets criminals show .exe files like harmless photos in the chat
Meta has corrected the vulnerability of a medium in its WhatsApp client for Windows, which enabled threat actors to forge the executable files as images.
In a brief advice published on Facebook, the company said it was dealing with a spoofing problem in WhatsApp for Windows before version 2,2450.6.
The “showed attachments according to their mime type, but selected the file opening manager based on the attachment file name -extension,” Meta explained.
No abuse in nature
“A malicious designed discrepancy could have caused the recipient to unintentionally perform arbitrary code instead of seeing the attachment when manually opening the adhesion inside WhatsApp.”
According to CyberinsidesThis discrepancy is a “classic method” for social engineering -based exploitation as it allows threat actors to send files that appear harmless but are actually malicious. “If a victim double -click on attachment within WhatsApp, the underlying executable could run and compromise the user’s system,” the publication wrote.
All older versions of the software were vulnerable, Meta explained further and recommended that users immediately use the patch.
At the same time Cygenerws Team says there is currently no evidence that vulnerability is utilized in nature. As usual with these things, as soon as news of a vulnerability breaks down, cyber criminals begin to hunt for vulnerable final points.
Most cyber attacks these days start with social technique. A phishing message, paired with a malicious affiliation, can be sent either via E -mail or via an instant messaging platform like WhatsApp. It can fool the victim to make a rash decision, run the attachment without thinking through it first.
E-mail addresses are leaked much more often than phone numbers, making WhatsApp-borne attack a little less likely. However, many organizations also harvest this information and then save them in incorrectly configured, non-password protected databases, which are often picked up by malicious actors and sold on the dark web.
For Adam Pilton, Senior Cybersecurity consultant at CyberSmart, said this is a dangerous vulnerability as many people are parts of different WhatsApp groups where images are shared all the time. This provides a great opportunity for criminal and greater risk to users:
“It is really important to emphasize that this WhatsApp -vulnerability affects Windows Desktop users. Most people will be part of a WhatsApp group where it is common for images to be shared and this is where this vulnerability becomes dangerous, because if a cyber criminal was able to share this photo either in your group or with someone you trust, There is not knowing the one, the Malian code associated with the shared image, “he said”. “
“However, it is good to see that the solution is at hand and simple to achieve, and that is to use an update to WhatsApp.”
Via Cygenerws
