Those images are almost certainly safe when viewed as a preview within the messenger itself-just don’t save it to your phone. The attack vector suggested by Check Point was a dangerous image shared over a messenger like WhatsApp, saved to a user’s device, which was then able to hijack another application-in this case Instagram. We demonstrated this with Instagram, but the vulnerability can likely be found in other applications.” “They can be a Trojan horse for hackers to invade your phone. “Think twice before you save photos onto your device,” the firm’s Ekram Ahmed told me. In September, researchers at Check Point disclosed that a maliciously crafted image file could have hijacked Instagram accounts.
Video and image files appear deceptively safe-unlike an Office or PDF document, you see a preview of the image and assume it’s safe. As ESET’s Jake Moore warns, “simply being sent a file which automatically saves sounds dangerous by any means but tends to be the norm for so many people.” Second, and much more critically, you should never save messaged photos to your phones.
In the meantime, though, your photo and video attachments-disappearing messages or not-will be saved by default on the phones of all those you send them to. There’s a chance WhatsApp has this option in development-if so, that would be welcomed and will protect users from the personal or viral media they send. This is why the expiring media option offered by Snapchat and Instagram is commendable. If disappearing messages are turned on, media sent in the chat will disappear, but will be saved on the phone if auto-download is on.” There are two serious problems here.įirst, the photos and videos you send are arguably more likely to compromise you than straight text. The real issue is buried in WhatsApp’s disappearing messages explainer: “By default, media you receive in WhatsApp will be automatically downloaded to your photos.
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