Last week, CERT-In issued a warning to WhatsApp users about security vulnerabilities discovered in WhatsApp that could lead to the compromise of users’ sensitive data.
WhatsApp announced on Monday that it had fixed two bugs in its out-of-date software and that there was no reason to assume that “these vulnerabilities were ever abused”.
The official statement follows a recent advisory from India’s cybersecurity agency, CERT-In, which warned WhatsApp users about certain vulnerabilities in the app that could lead to the compromise of sensitive data.
Commenting on the development, a WhatsApp spokesperson told PTI in a statement “We regularly work with security researchers to improve the numerous ways WhatsApp protects people’s messages. As is typical of software products, we have addressed two bugs that existed on outdated software, and we have no reason to believe that they were ever abused,”
The WhatsApp spokesperson added “remains safe and secure, and end-to-end encryption continues to work as intended to protect people’s messages”. A “high” severity rating advisory issued by the CERT-In, or the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team, on Saturday, had said that the vulnerability has been detected in the software that has “WhatsApp and WhatsApp Business for Android prior to v2.21.4.18 and WhatsApp and WhatsApp Business for iOS prior to v2.21.32”
The CERT-In advisory had said “Multiple vulnerabilities have been reported in WhatsApp applications which could allow a remote attacker to execute arbitrary code or access sensitive information on a targeted system,”. To counter the vulnerability threat, the advisory advised users to update their devices with the new version of WhatsApp from the Google Play Store or the iOS App Store.