Alleged WhatsApp Vulnerability Never Caused a Data Leak nor Exposed Any Phone Numbers: Revealed Details are Results of an Academic Research
A few recent reports had claimed that a critical security flaw on WhatsApp led to a data leak, exposing the contact numbers of many users from around the world. This is now revealed to be a false information as the details that are being shared online are simply results of an academic research.
Here’s more about it in detail below.
Phone Numbers of WhatsApp Users Exposed – A False Information!
As mentioned above, recently the internet was filled with reports that were all pointing to an alleged WhatsApp vulnerability which caused 3.5 billion phone numbers of WhatsApp users to be exposed, and it was due to a critical security flaw. The revealed details also pointed out that the exposed phone numbers were from users of different countries, making it one of the largest data leaks. However, things are not what it looks like.
These reports concerning the alleged WhatsApp vulnerability are actually misleading and false, and Meta via its Meta Bug Bounty X handle stated that there was no WhatsApp data leak or security flaw. All the details that are being shared are results from an academic research that was conducted by WhatsApp through Meta’s Bug Bounty program, and its goal was to identify and mitigate the gaps against novel enumeration or scraping methods.
Meta assures that no non-public data was accessible by the researchers that were part of the academic research, and the data that was collected has already been deleted securely, leaving no evidence that can lead to an adversarial abuse. Moreover, the personal data of WhatsApp users still remain protected with the end-to-end encryption system.
