Technical experts have discovered a recent security flaw in the WhatsApp messaging application, which allows anyone to suspend your account, without having to resort to it.
The French site “PaperGeek”, which specializes in technical developments, stated that this discovery came shortly after the adoption of WhatsApp’s privacy update policy, which had caused a lot of controversy.
The exploiter begins by installing WhatsApp on a new device, then enters your phone number to activate the account. It is known that the chat application cannot verify the number 100%, as it only sends a secret code to your number. After several unsuccessful repeated attempts, your account is suspended for 12 hours.
So far everything is normal, but once your account is closed, the exploit sends a support request message to WhatsApp from his email address, claiming that his phone has been lost or stolen, and that the account associated with your number must be deactivated urgently.
Then, WhatsApp verifies this through a message to your e-mail and suspends the account directly without any action from the original account holder.
The exploiter can repeat the process multiple times, which will cause the account to be suspended almost permanently.
Observers said that the account would not be exposed to the risk of hacking or seeing personal messages, but it would remain “deactivated” for a certain period.
WhatsApp did not respond to requests for comment about the new vulnerability.
