OREANDA-NEWS. Experts have discovered a new vulnerability in the WhatsApp messenger, which allows you to block your account. Forbes writes about it.

It is noted that attackers use two "weak points" of the application, namely, binding to a phone number and the ability to deny a user access to an account by writing an appeal to the support service.

When you enter a phone number in the application, the service asks for a confirmation code, which is usually sent via SMS or call. Ill-wishers enter the wrong code and then ask for a new one until WhatsApp blocks the option to reset the code for twelve hours. Then the scammers send a request to support the messenger with a request to block the account due to the loss of the phone, indicating the victim's phone number.

According to experts, the problem is that WhatsApp automatically processes such requests and does not check whether the request was actually sent by the real account owner.

The user can try to restore access after twelve hours, if the fraudster does not have time to start the whole procedure again.

The columnist for the publication Zak Doffman emphasizes that the owner can also permanently lose access to the account. He explained that if an attacker provokes the launch of a twelve-hour report three times, then the third time the messenger will ask to wait just a second. After that, sending a request by an ill-wisher may block the account forever.

In this case, you will have to contact WhatsApp specialists.