WhatsApp's 8-Month-Old Flaw Allows Interception Of Encrypted Messages

[StyM]

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/wha...ity,33418.html

WhatsApp conversations are supposed to be impenetrable. But a vulnerability discovered by security researcher Tobias Boelter could allow the company, or anyone compelling it, to intercept communications that were supposed to be encrypted from end to end. Facebook--which owns WhatsApp--said this is expected behavior and doesn't seem to be planning a change to its setup any time soon.

Over 1 billion people use WhatsApp today because it is simple, fast, reliable, and secure. [...] At WhatsApp, we?ve always believed that people?s conversations should be secure and private. Last year, we gave all our users a better level of security by making every message, photo, video, file and call end-to-end encrypted by default. As we introduce features like end-to-end encryption, we focus on keeping the product simple and take into consideration how it's used every day around the world.

In WhatsApp's implementation of the Signal Protocol, we have a ?Show Security Notifications? setting (option under Settings > Account > Security) that notifies you when a contact's security code has changed. We know the most common reasons this happens are because someone has switched phones or reinstalled WhatsApp. This is because in many parts of the world, people frequently change devices and SIM cards. In these situations, we want to make sure people's messages are delivered, not lost in transit.

[OldChap]

Or is it really a flaw or so dramatic?

http://gizmodo.com/theres-no-securit...ort-1791158247