Whatsapp Users beware! In what came as a shocking revealation, a research has found that your Whatsapp messages are not permanently deleted. iOS researcher Jonathan Zdziarski revealed that forensic trace of chat still remains present even after deletion, and any hacker with physical access to your device can retrieve the deleted messages.
While recently released end to end encryption on Whatsapp, where only you and the receiver can see the messages, got a lot of appreciation for creating privacy in the chats, Zdziarski believes it to be not true.
He posted an article on Zdziarski Blog Of Things, on Thursday, explaining that even after you delete messages, the logs of these chats are not replaced by new messages. He also stated that a hacker with the help of any recovery software can get access to the data.
Zdziarski blamed the newly intro
duced SQLite library through which the Whatsapp messenger is being coded. He explained that database on iOS does not get permanently erased, and unless database requires extra storage chats are not overwritten. He also revealed that Apple’s iMessage also suffers from this particular issue.
The news took the social media by storm, with everyone going berserk over the fact that their personal messages can be seen by a third party.
Jonathan Zdziarski commented on the fact and posted this on his Twitter account, ‘’ WhatsApp Forensic Artifacts: Chats Aren’t Being Deleted.’’
He also believes that any federal agency by issuing a warrant to Apple, can recover the deleted chats. Zdziarski, however, stated that there is nothing to be worried about at the moment and recommended people that they should have knowledge about Whatsapp’s working before sharing any private or confidential information on chat.
As a recommendation, he said in his blog that SQLite database should not be used to backup the messages, and suggested using a different method of storage backing like raw files. What steps will Whatsapp or Apple takes to prevent this only time to come will tell.
