WhatsApp Web services find Bugs and Scam

Indrajeet Bhuyan, a 17-year old tech blogger and security researcher out of India, found a pair of interesting but ultimately uncritical, bugs that exist in the interplay between WhatsApp Web and the original mobile variety. To be clear, the web client is merely an extension of the WhatsApp mobile application, mirroring conversations from the mobile device and displaying them on Chrome, according to a WhatsApp blog post. Users will only be able to use WhatsApp Web if their non-iOS mobile device is connected to the Internet.


Bhuyan posted a brief analysis of his research on his own blog, where he’s been posting tech-related stories since he was 14. He claims to have contacted WhatsApp and that they are working on it. Kaspersky Daily reached out to WhatsApp, but they did not respond to our request for comment.
Kaspersky Lab researcher Fabio Assolini has been tracking scams exploiting public interest in the platform. One such scam, according to a write-up on Securelist, mimics the WhatsApp installation page, but installs a shady Google Chrome extension instead of the proper plug-in. In order to install WhatsApp Web, users need to visit web.whatsapp.com and take a picture of the QR code there on a mobile device. Of course, the scammers here deploy a lookalike website with a malicious QR code to infect users.
In fact, Assolini explains that scams revolving around a desktop version of WhatsApp long pre-date the availability of WhatsApp Web. He says he’s noticed several malicious domains peddling Brazilian banking trojans disguised as fake versions of WhatsApp for Windows.
If you’re going to install WhatsApp Web, make sure you go to the correct website
Assolini found yet another criminal group exploiting interest in WhatsApp Web client in order to gather phone numbers for premium-rate SMS scams that sign up mobile numbers for text services, for which users are billed and criminals are paid.
We look forward to learning how WhatsApp Web’s security stacks up against other messaging services.
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Milan Tomic

Hi. I’m Designer of Blog Magic. I’m CEO/Founder of ThemeXpose. I’m Creative Art Director, Web Designer, UI/UX Designer, Interaction Designer, Industrial Designer, Web Developer, Business Enthusiast, StartUp Enthusiast, Speaker, Writer and Photographer. Inspired to make things looks better.

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