Indian cyber security agency has warned WhatsApp users against a “vulnerability” that can compromise their individual account without seeking permissions even as the popular social messaging app said users have not been impacted.
The Computer Emergency Response Team-India (CERT-In) has issued an advisory in this context calling the severity of the threat, being spread by an MP4 file, as “high.”
The advisory comes in the backdrop of recent developments where WhatsApp had informed the Indian government in September that over hundred Indian users were targeted by the Israeli spyware -- Pegasus.
“A vulnerability has been reported in WhatsApp which could be exploited by a remote attacker to execute arbitrary code on the target system,” the latest advisory said.
The CERT-In is the nodal agency to combat hacking, phishing and to fortify security-related defences of the Indian internet domain.
A WhatsApp spokesperson said the company is constantly working to improve the security of their service.
“We make public, reports on potential issues we have fixed consistent with industry best practices. In this instance there is no reason to believe users were impacted,” the spokesperson said.
The Indian cyber security agency’s advisory suggested “upgrading” to the latest version of WhatsApp to combat or tide over the problem.