WhatsApp warning: Beware of ‘dangerous messages’ containing crash codes

WA Beta Info issued a warning Sunday evening: certain messages being circulated on WhatsApp could cause the app to freeze, and closing and opening the app won’t help. Here’s what you need to know

‘Scary and dangerous’ WhatsApp messages

What are ‘scary’ messages?

WA Beta Info explained that these “scary messages” (for lack of a better word) are “very dangerous and can destruct your experience on WhatsApp”. You could lose your chat history if you haven’t backed it up recently.

This is similar to the Black Dot saga from 2018 that contained invisible characters which WhatsApp (specifically on Android) wasn’t able to render. When WhatsApp is unable to render, the app crashes.

However, the recent spate of messages poses a greater threat than the Black Dot threat as the “combination of the characters create a situation where WhatsApp isn’t able to process the message, determining an infinite crash”.

Restarting WhatsApp won’t help

When you open the message and WhatsApp crashes, you won’t be able to use it again. Just closing the app won’t help; there is “no effective solution to fix this issue”. The only way out is to delete and reinstall WhatsApp.

Netizens are also referring to these “scary” messages as Travar, Binario, Contact bomb, TravaZap or simply Crashers. But what exactly are they?

“Basically, a contact might send a message that contains many weird characters. If you read them entirely, they [make] no sense, but WhatsApp might interpret the message in a wrong way”.

WhatsApp vcards

WhatsApp could crash when you receive VCards as well, if they contain the same crash codes. WABetaInfo explains:

“If you open the vcard, you can verify that there might be 100 associated contacts. Every contact has a very long weird name that contains a crash code. Sometimes the vcard is also altered, editing/injecting something called Payload that makes the situation worse”.

Safeguard against ‘scary’ WhatsApp messages

If you receive a “scary message”, WABetaInfo suggests blocking the contact who sent it, immediately, from WhatsApp web. It is also suggested to sharpen your privacy controls by allowing only your contacts to add you to groups.

“Because other unknown contacts might add you in groups, send a scary message and remove the message containing the crash code, if it’s possible, from WhatsApp Web”.

It is also recommended to back up your chat history at least once a week, but preferably once a day.

WABeta Info couldn’t confirm if WhatsApp is attending to the matter, despite the fact these messages have been in circulation for three years. A quick fix isn’t possible either, due to “an infinite combination of these characters”.

I receive this report every day, really, in particular from Brazilian users.
Unfortunately it’s not a fake news.@WhatsApp should really consider this big issue. pic.twitter.com/wG33YOQZMC

— WABetaInfo (@WABetaInfo) August 6, 2020

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