WhatsApp Bug Lets iPhone Users Reopen ‘View Once’

News Desk

Islamabad: WhatsApp’s “View Once” feature, designed to enhance privacy by ensuring shared media disappears after a single view, was recently found to be unreliable due to a newly discovered bug. The flaw allowed iPhone users to access “View Once” photos and videos multiple times instead of just once, raising serious privacy concerns.

The vulnerability was first uncovered by cybersecurity researcher Ramshath, who detailed the issue in a blog post.

Exploiting the bug was surprisingly simple: iPhone users could navigate to Settings > Storage and Data > Manage Storage, locate the sender’s chat, and sort the media by “Newest.” This allowed them to reopen media that was supposed to disappear after a single view.

The issue exclusively affected iOS users, but given the vast number of iPhone users worldwide, the flaw posed a significant risk to WhatsApp’s commitment to privacy.

Meta’s Response and Fix

Upon reporting the bug to Meta’s bug bounty program, Ramshath was informed that the company was already aware of the problem and actively working on a fix. WhatsApp has since released an update (version 25.2.3 on iOS) to patch the vulnerability.

Users are urged to update their app immediately to ensure that the “View Once” feature functions as intended.

Ongoing Security Concerns

This isn’t the first time WhatsApp’s “View Once” feature has faced security loopholes. In September 2024, researchers discovered that self-destructing media could still be accessed if users knew the direct URL of the file stored on WhatsApp’s servers.

Although that issue was eventually fixed, the recurrence of such vulnerabilities raises concerns about the reliability of WhatsApp’s privacy-focused features.

As Meta and WhatsApp continue positioning themselves as secure messaging platforms, frequent security flaws in ephemeral messaging features may cause users to rethink sharing sensitive content through the app.