{"id":581417,"date":"2026-05-13T09:13:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T09:13:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/581417\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T09:13:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T09:13:09","slug":"all-whatsapp-users-placed-on-red-alert-and-urged-to-check-one-setting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/581417\/","title":{"rendered":"All WhatsApp users placed on red alert and urged to check one setting"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Anyone who uses <a data-link-tracking=\"InArticle|Link\" title=\"WhatsApp\" href=\"https:\/\/www.express.co.uk\/latest\/whatsapp\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">WhatsApp<\/a> would be wise to check their settings and make sure they are using the very latest version of this popular chat app. It&#8217;s been confirmed that two worrying software flaws have been discovered, including one which could interfere with how media and attachments are handled, and another which affects WhatsApp for Windows.<\/p>\n<p>As the security experts at <a data-link-tracking=\"InArticle|Link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/go.skimresources.com\/?id=76202X1587086&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.malwarebytes.com%2Fblog%2Fnews%2F2026%2F05%2Fupdate-whatsapp-now-two-new-flaws-could-expose-you-to-malicious-files%3Futm_source%3Diterable%26amp%3Butm_medium%3Demail%26amp%3Butm_campaign%3Db2c_pro_oth_20260511_mayweeklynewsletter_row_v2_2_177827143440%26amp%3Butm_content%3DWhatsapp_logo&amp;sref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.express.co.uk%2Flife-style%2Fscience-technology%2F2204881%2Fwhatspp-flaw-update-app-fix\" target=\"_blank\">Malwarebytes<\/a> explain, &#8220;These bugs don\u2019t automatically infect devices, but they lower the barrier for social engineering and could be chained with other vulnerabilities for more serious attacks.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;In other words: a booby\u2011trapped message could prompt your device to open content from an untrusted source.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Luckily, WhatsApp discovered the flaws (named CVE-2026-23866 and CVE-2026-23863) via its Meta Bug Bounty submissions and has released a fix.<\/p>\n<p>However, users must make sure their phones are fully updated with the latest version of the chat app to stay protected.<\/p>\n<p>There is currently no evidence to suggest that either bug has been exploited in the wild or infected any phones, but it&#8217;s always better to be safe than sorry.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We have not seen evidence of exploitation in the wild,&#8221; <a data-link-tracking=\"InArticle|Link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.whatsapp.com\/security\/advisories\/2026\" target=\"_blank\">WhatsApp confirmed<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>If you have an Android phone, then follow the steps below to update WhatsApp from the Google Play Store.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Open the Google Play Store<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Search for WhatsApp Messenger<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Tap Update<\/p>\n<p>Those on iPhone need to follow these steps to stay protected.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Open the App Store<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Tap your profile icon<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Scroll to find WhatsApp and tap Update<\/p>\n<p>This news comes as some users <a data-link-tracking=\"InArticle|Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.express.co.uk\/life-style\/science-technology\/2200191\/millions-android-users-whatsapp-block\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">could soon face being blocked from using WhatsApp<\/a>. That&#8217;s according to the team at WABetaInfo who say WhatsApp is planning to drop support for Android phones running OS versions older than Android 6 on September 8, 2026.<\/p>\n<p>WABetaInfo has seen a message that will pop up on devices and says, \u201cLater this year, WhatsApp won\u2019t work on this device\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Luckily, most won&#8217;t be affected, as Android 6 was released in 2015; it is unlikely that the Android phone in your pocket will be running this ageing software.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Anyone who uses WhatsApp would be wise to check their settings and make sure they are using the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":581418,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[59,1236,86,56,54,55,1235],"class_list":["post-581417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-gb","tag-tech-section","tag-technology","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-whatsapp"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=581417"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581417\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/581418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=581417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=581417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=581417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}