Security researcher Tobias Boelter has discovered a bug in the encrypted communications system used by WhatsApp that allows a determined third-party actor, possibly Facebook, to intercept encrypted messages. After months during which the researcher’s work was completely ignored, today the issue came into the public’s eye after many news outlets ran alarmistic headlines naming the bug a “backdoor”” Experts and infosec journalists are now contesting how the mainstream media has portrayed this vulnerability as a backdoor. The bug is not something that could be reliably exploited to intercept messages
Source: security