What's Up With WhatsApp?

A security researcher has discovered an “emoji overload” hack that can be used to crash the app and affect millions of users.

16:46 11 January 2016

WhatsApp has been hugely popular mainly due to its amazing features that include group messaging and a wide selection of emojis. However, a security researcher has discovered a vulnerability in the service that can be used to crash the app and affect millions of users.

 

Indrajeet Bhuyan said that “emoji overload” or sending a single message that contains 6,000 emojis would force the app to shut down.

In a blog post, he said: "In WhatsApp web, WhatsApp allows 6,500 - 6,600 characters.

 

"But after typing about 4,200 - 4,400 smileys the browser starts to slow down. But since the limit is not yet reached, so WhatsApp allows you to go on inserting."

 

"When it [the mobile app] receives it, it overflows the buffer and it crashes."

 

The 18-year-old made and posted a video online to demonstrate the “emoji overload” technique.

 

He then added that he has notified WhatsApp about his discovery and that the problem will be fixed with an upcoming patch.

 

WhatsApp is currently one of the most popular apps and it is being used by more than 900 million people as of September 2015.