WhatsApp recently got under the scanner for security-related concerns over the Pegasus spyware breach. And now Facebook issued yet another security warning for WhatsApp users of a vulnerability that can allow hackers to get access to a person’s phone by sending malicious video file via WhatsApp.


The security vulnerability (CVE-2019-11931) is a stack-based buffer overflow that involves sending an MP4 media file that’s maliciously crafted by an unknown sender on WhatsApp to the victim. This issue was spotted in the regular WhatsApp version, WhatsApp for Business, and the Enterprise client version. This MP4 file appears to be like any other video file, however, once the victim plays the file, hackers can execute malicious code in the background to get access to the victim’s phone. “The issue was present in parsing the elementary stream metadata of an MP4 file and could result in a DoS (Denial Of Service) or RCE (Remote Code Execution),” Facebook explains in a security advisory.

Ever since the news around the Pegasus Spyware downloads of WhatsApp has dropped down by 80%. Pegasus, which has been called the most sophisticated smartphone attack ever exploited a loophole in the video calling feature on WhatsApp. Anybody who bought the Pegasus software could easily access a person’s phone or device data. WhatsApp sent a special message to approximately 1400 users that the app was impacted by this attack and to directly inform the users about what happened. Now as far as this new MP4 security vulnerability is concerned, you can easily protect yourself from the vulnerability by simply upgrading your app.



How To Check If You’re Safe From WhatsApp Vulnerability

If you want to be safe from this vulnerability, you need to upgrade to the latest WhatsApp version 2.19.274 at least while Apple iPhone users must upgrade to version 2.19.100. Moreover, since security vulnerability also affects the WhatsApp Enterprise Client version prior to 2.25.3, and WhatsApp for Windows prior to 2.18.368, all WhatsApp users must update their app.

To check if you’re using the updated version, just go to settings, select help, and you’ll see the version number if you’re an iPhone user. If you’re an Android user, tap on ‘App Info’ and you’d be able to see the WhatsApp version that you’re using.