Just a GIF: That’s all it took to hack your WhatsApp messages, files

WhatsApp was recently affected with a double-free bug that allowed hackers to gain access to user data through GIFs. WhatsApp has since patched the bug with the latest version of the app.

This bug was discovered by information security enthusiast ‘Awakened’ who posted the details on GitHub. According to the post, hackers could get inside someone’s phone by sending malicious GIF files to the user. The GIF file should however be sent as a document and not as a media file for the bug to work. Once the corrupted GIF is received, the bug is triggered through WhatsApp’s Gallery folder.

The researcher notes that just opening the WhatsApp Gallery to send images or videos is enough to trigger the bug.