WhatsApp Flaw Can be Used by Strangers to Lock Your Account: Here's How

Urian B., Tech Times 14 April 2021, 12:04 am

WhatsApp is quite popular and currently sits as one of the most widely used encrypted messenger services all around the world. This means that the app also receives quite the amount of attention from hackers, attackers, and cybercriminals all trying to find certain security flaws in the popular service.

WhatsApp Flaw Used by Attackers

There has actually been a particular flaw recently discovered which could get a user's particular WhatsApp account completely suspended for hours and hours on end leaving them without an easy solution for the victims of this particular attack. Forbes reported that the flaw was discovered by security researchers Ernesto Canales Perena and Luis Marquez Carpintero.

According to the security researchers, the WhatsApp flaw can be utilized by malicious actors in order to lock users well out of their account. In this particular case, it could actually be an estranged partner, an enemy, a troll, or a random person just wanting to lock out a random number out of WhatsApp. Once the user is locked out of their account, there will be no easy or instant way for them to be able to regain access to their account.

WhatsApp Number Used Against Owners

According to the story by The Star, the attack itself is actually very straightforward. The easy process of locking someone out of WhatsApp that hackers follow just consists of a few steps in itself that almost anyone can do.

Attackers can do the following:

download WhatsApp
enter the victim's phone number
taps the Verify button
makes multiple failed attempts to lock owner out

When attackers are trying to lock out a victim, they will not receive the code but instead, the victim will receive the code. All the attacker needs to do is to make multiple failed attempts in order for the account to be locked out. There is no need for the victim's SIM card and only needs their phone number.

WhatsApp B Attack

Getting back the account or retrying the whole login process could take more than half a day in order to try to enter the code that they actually receive. As of the moment, it does not seem like there are solutions to this potentially harmful attack on people especially if their numbers are in the hands of the attackers.

While the attack could be random, attackers can try to specifically find the target victim's number through searching online or other means. Once victim's number is obtained, the attacker can make use of the WhatsApp flaw in order to lock out the original owner of the WhatsApp account.

WhatsApp still hasn't given their comments regarding this particular flaw and what they are doing in order to fix this particular problem. As of the moment, victims would still have to wait until they are able to access their account.

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Written by Urian Buenconsejo