WhatsApp Media files and Telegram unsafe?

WhatsApp & Telegram

Symantec released the latest reports related to instant messaging services. Symantec researchers explained how hackers use malicious apps to secretly manipulate media files through the WhatsApp and Telegram services.

On Android, apps can choose to store media such as image and audio files, in the internal storage space through apps or external storage space so they are available for other applications.

WhatsApp By default saves media to external storage space, and Telegram also does the same until the Save to Gallery feature is enabled. According to researchers, this design means that malware with storage space access can be used to access WhatsApp and Telegram media files, even before users find them.

For example, if a user downloads a malicious app, and then receives a photo on WhatsApp, the hacker can manipulate the image without the recipient realizing it. Theoretically, hackers can also change the multimedia messages that users send.

Researchers refer to this attack under the name Media File Jacking. On the various sides, this attack is a known issue and becomes a war between privacy and accessibility for messaging apps on Android.

Using external storage space settings, which are widely used, apps are more compatible with other applications, allowing images and other data to be moved more freely.

Telegram did not respond immediately when asked to comment by The Verge regarding this issue.

While the WhatsApp representative says that changing its storage space system will restrict the ability of the service to share media files, and raise new privacy issues.

In his statement, WhatsApp calls the center of intensive investigation into these issues and similar questions previously related to mobile storage space that affect the application ecosystem.

WhatsApp also claims to have performed the best actions provided by the operating system for the media storage space and attempts to provide updates that align with the development found on Android.

Not only instant messaging applications, SYMANTEC researchers also mentioned that users generally trust encrypted apps to protect the integrity of the sender's identity and the content of the message. However, researchers have also written that the code will not be immune to security vulnerabilities.

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