WhatsApp for Android loophole lets private photos be accessed without unlocking
A loophole in WhatsApp for Android lets someone see private photos on your device without the device being unlocked, which obviously isn’t supposed to happen. more…
A flaw in WhatsApp for Android allows private photos to be viewed without unlocking the device. This vulnerability was discovered by a Twitter/X user and later confirmed by others, including "Mobile Hacker" and NotebookCheck. When a WhatsApp call appears on a user's screen, it can be answered without unlocking the phone, allowing a button to be pressed to apply filters and effects to the video feed, including Meta's AI, which can edit photos.
Instead of locking the screen, the preview of the photos is clearly shown. This loophole is not present on iPhone devices, where WhatsApp must use the native iOS calling interface. While the photos cannot be accessed fully, someone with malicious intent could take pictures of them using another device. WhatsApp and Google have been informed about the issue, and a patch is expected, but no update has been released yet.
In the meantime, users can set WhatsApp's photo and video permissions to "limited" in Android settings to prevent this loophole.
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