Whatsapp Messages Can Be Traced Using This Technique; Hackers Can Alter Your Chat Messages!

A discovery by a professor from IIT Madras has helped point out that Whatsapp is capable of tracking the origin of any message on its platform. This professor from Madras has also gone ahead and submitted a report at the Madras High Court.

On the other hand, a vulnerability has been detected in WhatsApp, and through this flaw, hackers will be able to change the content of the messages of WhatsApp.

WhatsApp Can Trace The Origin of Messages

As an attempt to curb the rate at which rumours and fake news have been spreading around the country through WhatsApp, the Government asked WhatsApp to trace the origin of messages, which was denied by WhatsApp. 

However, a professor from IIT Madras has discovered two ways in which WhatsApp can trace the origin of messages. As per the first method, WhatsApp can trace the origin of a message by embedding the first sender’s information along with the message’s contents. This information will be visible to everyone.

The other method is to encrypt the information of the sender in the message which will be easily accessible to officials as and when needed. 

Kamakoti, who also is a member of the National Security Advisory Board in the Prime Minister’s Office, wrote, “We provide two suggestions. However, WhatsApp Inc may have other methods for extracting original information.”

WhatsApp Flaws That Allows Hackers to Alter Messages

A security firm, Check Point Software Technologies Ltd., has detected flaws in WhatsApp that will enable hackers to change the content of messages in both public and private conversations in three different potential ways. 

One way of these three ways is by using the ‘quote’ feature in a group conversation and change the appearance of the identity of the sender. The second way enables hackers to change the content of someone’s reply. The third one will let the person send a private message to another group participant. This message will be disguised as a public message to all, and when this particular person responds, the reply will be visible to everyone in the conversation. 

The spokesperson from Facebook said that the issue has been reviewed a year ago, and that it is wrong to suggest that there could be something wrong with the security that Facebook provides on WhatsApp. 

The spokesperson also said, “The scenario described here is merely the mobile equivalent of altering replies in an email thread to make it look like something a person didn’t write. We need to be mindful that addressing concerns raised by these researchers could make WhatsApp less private – such as storing information about the origin of messages.”

Additionally, Check Point revealed that they had approached WhatsApp and alerted them about the issues last year. But the popular social networking app responded that they have fixed the last of the above mentioned three methods.