A new vulnerability has popped up on WhatsApp and it allows hackers to access your chats in a pretty interesting manner.
The bug known as the Double-free vulnerability allows hackers to hijack people’s phones by sending them a gif. It’s not just any sort of GIF but a special corrupted GIF.
The bug only affects users on Android – 8.1 and 9 to be specific but the researcher who discovered it said it might be able to get triggered on older devices without as devastating effects.
The bug has already been fixed by WhatsApp but you’ll have to make sure your WhatsApp is updated to the latest version in order to make sure that you’re not affected.
The issue was reported and quickly addressed. We have no reason to believe this affected any users, though of course we are always working to provide the latest security features to our users.
Facebook spokesperson
