WhatsApp Flaw Exposes Billions of Numbers

Brief By Republic World / 1:55 AM on 20 Nov 2025

A vulnerability exposed 3.5 billion WhatsApp user phone numbers globally. Researchers from the University of Vienna disclosed the issue, noting Meta was warned about the lack of rate-limiting years ago. While private messages were secure under end-to-end encryption, public profile data was exposed. Meta claims no evidence of criminal abuse exists and has since implemented countermeasures for the contact discovery feature flaw.