WhatsApp Security Flaw Could Crash Your iPhone

The bug, according to the report, was uncovered by a security researcher Natalie Silvanovich with Google's Project Zero security research team-and that was back in August.

"This issue can occur when a WhatsApp user accepts a call from a malicious peer", Silvanovich explained. Only the mobile users, both iOS and Android had the bug.

RTP stands for Realtime Transport Protocol and is commonly used to send audio and video over the Internet.

This new fault, discovered in late August by the team at Google Project Zero, was manifesting in the Android version of the app as well as iOS (Apple). She found a severe vulnerability in WhatsApp Messenger that could have given hackers complete remote control of your WhatsApp just by video calling you over the messaging app.

"Although the vulnerability is patched now, users must take this a lesson and stay vigilant while interacting with unknown people especially over e-channels such as email, e-chat applications and social media". The company took the issue very serious sensing the gravity of potential and fixed of which details are available on the public domain. WhatsApp web users were not impacted because it uses, what is called, WebRTC for video calls. It works with security researchers around the world to ensure that the service "remains safe and reliable".

"WhatsApp cares deeply about the security of our users", a WhatsApp spokesperson told ZDNet. After this bug, the company has promptly brought a fix to the latest version.

According to the Facebook-owned company, there has been no evidence so far of any hacks using the exploit actually being carried out in practice, although they encouraged users to update the application.

Other notable names in the security research space, like Tavis Ormandy, have pointed out the severity of this kind of hack. Simply put, by just knowing your phone number, the hacker can get in your smartphone and access all the secret conversation.