With more than two billion users, WhatsApp is very powefull when it comes to apps in general. With this level of success comes increased exposure to those who would do WhatsApp users harm. But of course, no app is immune to security vulnerabilities; they are a fact of technological life.
WhatsApp has recently fixed critical and high-severity vulnerabilities affecting WhatsApp for Android, WhatsApp Business for Android, WhatsApp for iOS, and WhatsApp Business for iOS. The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) has issued a high-severity security warning for WhatsApp users in India. It has again confirmed that businesses need a mobile security solution to secure their devices.
Remote Code Execution (RCE) Vulnerability: CVE-2021-24026
WhatsApp released a patch to fix the RCE critical vulnerability (CVE-2021-24026). This vulnerability has a CVSSv3 base score of 9.8 and should be prioritized for patching. It affects assets running:
– WhatsApp for Android prior to v2.21.3
– WhatsApp Business for Android prior to v2.21.3
– WhatsApp for iOS prior to v2.21.32
– WhatsApp Business for iOS prior to v2.21.32
Sensitive Information Disclosure Vulnerability: CVE-2021-24027
WhatsApp released a patch to fix a Sensitive Information Disclosure high vulnerability (CVE-2021-24027). This vulnerability has a CVSSv3 base score of 7.5 and should be prioritized for patching. It affects asset running WhatsApp for Android v2.21.4.18 and WhatsApp Business for Android v2.21.4.18.
About WhatsApp Business
If you are using it within your organization then it becomes critical to fix it on priority. According to CERT-In, “Successful exploitation of these vulnerabilities could allow the attacker to execute arbitrary code or access sensitive information on a targeted system.” To minimize the risk, you need to identify the affected assets and then update the application to the right version.
Identification of Assets using VMDR for Mobile Devices
The first step in managing the critical vulnerabilities and reducing risk is to identify the assets. Qualys VMDR for Mobile Devices makes it easy to identify the assets running WhatsApp. To get the comprehensive visibility of the mobile devices, you need to install Qualys Cloud Agent for Android or iOS on all mobile devices. The device onboarding process is easy, and the inventory of mobile devices is free.
Qualys’ all-in-one VMDR provides in-depth mobile device visibility, data security insights, proactive posture monitoring, and automated response for all iOS and Android devices and installed apps – just like VMDR does for on premises, endpoints, clouds, containers, OT and IoT assets.
Qualys VMDR for Mobile Devices provides:
– Comprehensive mobile device and app inventory – Get a holistic view of all Android, iOS/iPadOS devices and installed apps across your enterprise. Enriched inventory provides in-depth details on hundreds of mobile data points such as device type, OS version, installed apps, EOL status, device location, CA certificates, and more.
– Continuous vulnerability assessment – Qualys’ lightweight Cloud Agent provides real-time visibility and assessment of device, OS, app, and network vulnerabilities using the industry’s most comprehensive signature database. Qualys automatically correlates vulnerabilities with the appropriate app versions improving accuracy and eliminating the time required to manually research and map weaknesses.
– Real-Time misconfiguration monitoring – Expand your vulnerability management program by continuously monitoring critical mobile device configurations as recommended by the NSA and CIS best practices to ensure continuous security.
– Built-in response and patch orchestration – Remediate and act on all at-risk mobile devices simultaneously, using over-the-air, out-of-the-box controls to uninstall or update vulnerable apps, alert users, reset or lock devices, change passcodes, and more. Additionally, Qualys provides orchestration of responses such as deploying updated app versions from the Google Play Store or uninstalling vulnerable apps to reduce the time to remediation.
Qualys VMDR for Mobile Devices is available to help you detect vulnerabilities, monitor critical device settings, and correlate updates with the correct app versions available on Google Play Store.
Contact us for more information!
