From PC World: WhatsApp, the widely used messaging program, has fixed a dangerous flaw in its Web app that could be used to trick people into installing malware, according to Check Point.
The flaw could affect as many as 200 million people who use WhatsApp's web interface, wrote Oded Vanunu, Check Point's group manager for security research and penetration.
"All an attacker needed to do to exploit the vulnerability was to send a user a seemingly innocent vCard containing malicious code," he wrote.
The flaw was found by a Check Point researcher, Kasif Dekel. He found that the Web version of WhatsApp failed to properly filter electronic business cards in the vCard format.
Dekel found it was possible to change the file extension for a vCard to .bat, or a batch executable script. WhatsApp thinks a user is just receiving a vCard, but it's actually executable code.
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