u0m3 Posted August 10, 2018 Report Posted August 10, 2018 Synopsis: As of early 2018, the Facebook-owned messaging application, WhatsApp, has over 1.5 billion users with over one billion groups and 65 billion messages sent every day. With so much chatter, the potential for online scams, rumours and fake news is huge. It doesn’t help then, if threat actors have an additional weapon in their arsenal to leverage the platform for their malicious intentions. Check Point Research, however, recently unveiled new vulnerabilities in the popular messaging application that could allow threat actors to intercept and manipulate messages sent in both private and group conversations, giving attackers immense power to create and spread misinformation from what appear to be trusted sources. Our team observed three possible methods of attack exploiting this vulnerability – all of which involve social engineering tactics to fool end-users. A threat actor can: Use the ‘quote’ feature in a group conversation to change the identity of the sender, even if that person is not a member of the group. Alter the text of someone else’s reply, essentially putting words in their mouth. Send a private message to another group participant that is disguised as a public message for all, so when the targeted individual responds, it’s visible to everyone in the conversation. Following the process of Responsible Disclosure, Check Point Research informed WhatsApp of their findings. From Check Point Research’s view, we believe these vulnerabilities to be of the utmost importance and require attention. Link: https://research.checkpoint.com/fakesapp-a-vulnerability-in-whatsapp/ 1 Quote
