Odaily Planet Daily News: WhatsApp’s “disappearing media” feature problem has finally been solved. The problem was first discovered by the technical team of the cryptocurrency wallet startup Zengo a few months ago.
WhatsApp has launched a "View Once" feature that allows users to send pictures and videos that will be automatically deleted after viewing, thereby protecting the privacy of users.
However, in August, Zengo's team discovered that the feature could be "easily bypassed" when using the platform's web app. Its team said it disclosed the issue to WhatsApp, but when it was discovered that the issue had been "widely exploited," it made its findings public "in order to protect the privacy of WhatsApp users."

WhatsApp quickly issued a patch, but this reportedly still allowed the allegedly deleted images to be viewed. Now the platform says it has rolled out a more comprehensive software update.

In a separate blog post on Monday, Zengo co-founder Tal Be'ery explained that while the fix is "a big improvement over the original," it's not perfect. He added, "The fix still allows other sender devices (which shouldn't display the 'see once' message) to receive the message. This may introduce unnecessary risk as it increases the attack surface for no reason." (Protos)