WhatsApp Resolves MP4 Security Vulnerability Exposing Messages issues

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WhatsApp has resolved a security vulnerability in the Android and iOS app that would have allowed attackers to obtain access to messages and files stored on a compromised device using a crafted MP4 file.

WhatsApp says that both the consumer versions of its app were affected, as well as the Enterprise Client, Business for Android, and Business for iOS siblings.

There are no signs of attacks happening in the wild and it’s not known if anyone used this vulnerability to break into Android devices or iPhones, but WhatsApp does say that a successful attack would have allowed a denial of service or remote code execution.

“A stack-based buffer overflow could be triggered in WhatsApp by sending a specially crafted MP4 file to a WhatsApp user. The issue was present in parsing the elementary stream metadata of an MP4 file and could result in a DoS or RCE. This affects Android versions prior to 2.19.274, iOS versions prior to 2.19.100, Enterprise Client versions prior to 2.25.3, Business for Android versions prior to 2.19.104 and Business for iOS versions prior to 2.19.100,” CVE-2019-11931 reads.

Update WhatsApp as soon as possible
Updating to the latest version of WhatsApp, regardless of the edition that you are currently running, should be enough to keep your device protected.

WhatsApp is currently the top mobile messaging app on both Android and iOS, and according to official stats, there are more than 1.5 billion monthly active users on all supported platforms.

Earlier this year, WhatsApp confirmed that spyware developed by NSO Group was used against a series of targets that included mostly high-profile Indian users, such as journalists and academics. There’s no indication that the MP4 flaw was used in similar attacks, although allowing for access to messages and files should be reason enough for everyone to patch ASAP.