WhatsApp’s Latest Bug Lets iPhone Users Bypass Its New Face And Touch ID Lock Feature

Less than a month after WhatsApp added a new security feature to its iOS app, users have found a vulnerability. The Facebook-owned chat app added a handy ‘lock’ ability to its iOS app that requires Touch ID or Face ID to unlock the app and view chats.

It was a welcome change that added convenient security to the app for many users. Unfortunately, a Reddit user found a vulnerability with this new feature. In a nutshell, WhatsApp’s latest bug make the secondary biometric authentication step of the Touch ID or Face ID useless when someone tries to access the app via a sharing extension as reported by Reuters.

WhatsApp has acknowledged the issue and promised to release a fix soon. The company also recommended users to change the screen lock option to “immediately” to avoid the bug. If you are also experiencing the issue on your iPhone or any other iOS gadget, here’s how you can modify the screen lock settings:

Step 1: Open Whatsapp application on your iPhone.
Step 2: Go to Settings. Select Account.
Step 3. Tap on Privacy and toggle the button to enable/disable screen lock.
Step 4: You can set authentication kick-in time to “Immediately”, “After 1 minute”, “After 15 minutes” and “After 1 hour.” Tap on “Immediately”.
Step 4. Exit Settings.

WhatsApp Messenger is a cross-platform mobile messaging app which allows mobile phone users to exchange messages without having to pay for Short Message Services costs. WhatsApp Messenger application is compatible with different mobile phone models such as iPhone, BlackBerry, Android, Windows Phone and Nokia. The… Read More About WhatsApp