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WhatsApp Bug No Laughing Matter

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WhatsApp Bug No Laughing Matter

 
December 08, 2014

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  By Maurice Nagle, TMCnet Web Editor

With over 600 million people actively using WhatsApp around the world, it has certainly made its mark in the messaging app space. However, of late, it is not all smiles as a security bug is causing users to lose their entire chat histories.

Two 17-year-old research students in India, Indrajeet Bhuyan and Saurav Kar, discovered the attacking bug forcing users to shut down the app and in doing so, lose chat histories. Initially, the two researchers made note that sending a message of 7mb or larger could crash the app, but recently it was discovered that a 2kb sized message is fully capable of taking down the app as well.


It has been reported for Android (News - Alert), that the bug will shut down the app and delete chat history, and upon trying to restart the app the bug forces the app to shut down. Additionally, any chat member receiving the message could fall victim to the same fate.

Reports state that Windows Phone (News - Alert) 8.1 and iOS phones are being tested but have not produced the same vulnerability to the bug. Neither Google or WhatsApp have commented on the matter, so only time will tell what the solution is.

In related news, it was reported this week that nearly half of all Italian divorces credit WhatsApp as part of the issue. Sounds a little funny to blame a messaging app, but infidelity is no laughing matter. According to the Italian Association of Matrimonial Lawyers, the messaging app is named more in divorce proceedings than text messages, emails, late-night phone calls, handwritten notes and even lipstick-stained collars.

"No one is saying WhatsApp is the cause of the divorces," says Gian Ettore Gassani, president of the Matrimonial Lawyers group. "The leading cause is infidelity, but WhatsApp is now the most common way for one partner to discover infidelity in the other."

Per Gassani, most philanderers are discovered when they leave their phone out, receive a message and have a curious partner who takes a peek at what their significant other has been up to.

"If WhatsApp messages could be intercepted by wiretaps like phone calls," Gassani says, "the divorce rate in Italy might be 100 times higher."

This has been quite the interesting week for WhatsApp, being scorned for not protecting its users’ conversations and yet, thousands of conversations ending marriages all along the Italian countryside. The bug affecting the app is extremely frustrating for many, and as these frustrations mount, Italian marriages are reportedly ending due to discovery of an illicit conversation. Is it time to ask WhatsApp “What’s up?”




Edited by Stefania Viscusi
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