Links to group chats of the messenger service Whatsapp appear in the results of Google.
The problem was only resolved last year - now it was getting acute again.
Unauthorized persons can
join
group chats on
Whatsapp
*
via
Google
.
Links to
WhatsApp
groups appear in the results of the
Google
search engine
.
Invitation
links
to
WhatsApp
groups and profiles were publicly available
last year
.
Kassel - Who the
group chat
on
communicated and would add more friends, family members or colleagues, you can easily send an invitation link.
If you follow the link, you will
automatically join
the
chat group
.
But these invitation links could be found publicly on
.
Unauthorized persons can join a chat unhindered and view the information of the members.
A Twitter user draws attention to this problem.
Another concern is that it is not the first time.
+
Invitation links have appeared on Google that allow unauthorized access to Whatsapp groups.
(Symbol image)
© Marius Bulling via www.imago-images.de
Whatsapp: Links to private chat groups appear on Google
This vulnerability with
and
became public
in November 2019 and February 2020
.
According to Jordan Wildon from "Deutsche Welle", a search yielded 470,000 hits.
In addition to
chat groups
, profile data and message
histories also
appeared in the search engine results.
"Your
groups may not be as secure as you think," says cybersecurity researcher Rajshekhar Rajaharia on Twitter.
"Invitation
links
to
group chats and user profiles have already been
made public
again on
."
Rajaharia went on to explain that the search engine's crawlers could identify such invitation links and thus put them on the index because the “robots.txt” file for the subdomain “chat.whatsapp.com” was missing.
After the last few times the problem was solved.
Now the invitations to the
app's
group chats have
reappeared on the Internet.
reacted quickly, however.
The links to the
group chats
the
app
were on Monday (1/11/2021) from the
removed outcomes.
Whoever said history repeats itself? Https: //t.co/kreqESbaXi
- Jordan Wildon (@JordanWildon) January 11, 2021
Whatsapp: Unauthorized persons can find and join groups via Google
"Since March 2020,
has
tagged
all deep links with a 'no-index' tag, which, according to
, ensures that they are not listed in the index," said a
spokesman for the Indian news agency IANS.
“We gave
our feedback to
not to put these chats on the index.
As a reminder, everyone in a
chat
group
will receive
a notification that someone has joined that group.
The admin can revoke or change the invitation link at any time. "
developer |
Whatsapp Inc./Facebook Inc. |
Publishing year |
2009 |
category |
Instant messaging |
German speaking |
Yes |
“Like all content that is shared on searchable, public channels, invitation
links that are
shared publicly on the Internet can be found by other
users.
Links that users want to share privately with people they know and trust should not be posted on a publicly accessible website, ”the statement said.
Your @WhatsApp groups may not be as secure as you think they are.
WhatsApp Group Chat Invite Links, User Profiles Made Public Again on @Google Again.
Story - https://t.co/GK2KrCtm8J#Infosec #Privacy #Whatsapp #infosecurity #CyberSecurity #GDPR #DataSecurity #dataprotection pic.twitter.com/7PvLYuM9xD
- Rajshekhar Rajaharia (@rajaharia) January 10, 2021
Links to WhatsApp groups visible on Google: Messenger reacts
The criticism of the messenger service does not end.
recently
changed the terms and conditions.
By February 8, 2021, users must agree that data
may be shared
with all companies in the
group.
If you do not agree to the change, you will
no longer be able to use
the
app
.
(Lukas Rogalla)
* hna.de is part of the nationwide Ippen-Digital editorial network.
List of rubric lists: © Marius Bulling via www.imago-images.de
