WhatsApp users interested in removing content in a conversation they’re having over the popular messaging system can now do so by taking advantage of a vulnerability discovered in the Android version of the app. The Hacker News reports that two Indian teenage security researchers found the flaw, which lets anyone crash any conversation between Android devices, or remove certain users from a group chat.
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A 2,000-word message written in special character set will crash a WhatsApp thread and the application on various Android OS versions, including Jelly Bean, KitKat and Lollipop. It’s not clear whether the iOS version of the app is also affected by the same bug, and the crash doesn’t work on Windows Phone 8.1, so this “trick” only appears to offer expected results on Android so far.
When restarting the app, the victim will have to delete the entire conversation thread to keep talking to the same person, as trying to simply reload the chat, now containing the 2,000-word message, will only crash the app again.
It’s not clear whether a fix for this particular issue is in the works. Its also unclear whether once a fix is applied, old WhatsApp records will be saved. But with this sneaky trick, users will be able to at least temporarily prevent others from sharing a messaging thread with others, or forcefully remove users from group chats.
More details about this WhatsApp vulnerability issue are available at the source link, and a video showing it in action follows below.
