Friday, December 8, 2023

WhatsApp Privacy Flaw – Delete for Everyone Feature Fails to Delete Media from iPhone

WhatsApp introduced ‘delete for everyone’ feature last year. this is a quite life-saving feature which let you recall the message that you sent accidentally.

Security Consultant Shitesh Sachan, noted that the feature was not working an intended with media files if the recipient using an iPhone and having WhatsApp feature Save to Camera Roll enabled.

This feature is available only for iPhone users and it can be enabled or enabled WhatsApp > Settings > Chats > Save to Camera Roll.

WhatsApp Feature Save to Camera Roll

The problem is that if a user having this feature enabled then automatically images will get saved in the device’s Camera Roll and it cannot be deleted. Because of security restriction with iOS that denies third-party apps in accessing device gallery without permission.

According to Shitesh Sachan findings shared with GBHackers On Security, if the sender accidentally posted a photo and if he wants to delete the message using ‘delete for everyone’ feature the message will get delete only from the Whatsapp chat thread and not from Gallery if the recipient uses the iOS device.

With the android device the feature works as intended, Whatsapp can delete the photo’s saved in the Gallery, but not with iOS device’s,

“WhatsApp should accept and tell to everybody that images will not get removed from Iphone users if they have enabled this feature or they should remove the item once user requested for that despite having that feature enabled,” Shitesh Sachan added.

The issue is more sensitive in the case of Whatsapp group’s that contains both iOS and Android users. If user A shared a confidential photo in the group, later he deletes the message using ‘delete for everyone’ feature it works only for Android devices and not for iOS devices.

WhatsApp explained in a statement shared to The Hacker News, that using ‘delete for everyone’ feature removes the media from the chat thread, but if the user selected to save with Camera Roll, then it is out of WhatsApp control.

WhatsApp possibly make changes in the future release, it is always safe to double-check the messages before sending it.

Related Read:

WhatsApp Web – A Complete Guide To Use on Windows, Mac, Linux

Israel Firm Linked With WhatsApp Spyware Hack Faces Lawsuit

Website

Latest articles

Exploitation Methods Used by PlugX Malware Revealed by Splunk Research

PlugX malware is sophisticated in evasion, as it uses the following techniques to avoid...

TA422 Hackers Attack Organizations Using Outlook & WinRAR Vulnerabilities

Hackers exploit Outlook and WinRAR vulnerabilities because these widely used software programs are lucrative...

Bluetooth keystroke-injection Flaw: A Threat to Apple, Linux & Android Devices

An unauthenticated Bluetooth keystroke-injection vulnerability that affects Android, macOS, and iOS devices has been...

Atlassian Patches RCE Flaw that Affected Multiple Products

Atlassian has been discovered with four new vulnerabilities associated with Remote Code Execution in...

Reflectiz Introduces AI-powered Insights on Top of Its Smart Alerting System

Reflectiz, a cybersecurity company specializing in continuous web threat management, proudly introduces a new...

SLAM Attack Gets Root Password Hash in 30 Seconds

Spectre is a class of speculative execution vulnerabilities in microprocessors that can allow threat...

Akira Ransomware Exploiting Zero-day Flaws For Organization Network Access

The Akira ransomware group, which first appeared in March 2023, has been identified as...

Endpoint Strategies for 2024 and beyond

Converge and Defend

What's the pulse of Unified Endpoint Management and Security (UEMS) in Europe? Join us live to uncover the strategies that are defining endpoint security in the region.

Related Articles