Abby Fuller, a developer from Amazon, recently discovered a security flaw in the messaging application that displays old conversations for users who have changed their phones and restored chats on new devices.
Abby tweeted that when logging into WhatsApp with a new phone number, she found the previous number’s messages on the app, in plain text without encryption.
logged into whatsapp with a new phone number today and the message history from the previous number’s owner was right there?! this doesn’t seem right.— Abby Fuller (@abbyfuller) January 11, 2019
Abby Fuller’s testimony is compelling and raises questions about the security of WhatsApp. It is concerning that this flaw allowed access to previous users’ messages on a new device. WhatsApp is known for end-to-end encryption in all conversations, making it secure from third-party access. However, there is no official statement from the company regarding this issue yet, and it is hoped that this is an isolated case.
