285/69 Monday, May 25, 2026
Reports have emerged of multiple iPhone users in Italy having their WhatsApp accounts hijacked and used to send unauthorized messages, despite victims not clicking malicious links, scanning QR codes, entering verification codes, or linking new devices. Attackers reportedly used compromised accounts to send money transfer requests to recently contacted individuals. In several cases, the “Linked Devices” section within WhatsApp did not display any suspicious or unknown devices, making the compromise difficult for users to detect.
According to an investigation conducted by Forenser, most victims were using various iPhone models still running iOS 16. Researchers believe the incidents may be linked to vulnerabilities affecting both Apple’s operating system and WhatsApp, specifically CVE-2025-43300 and CVE-2025-55177. The vulnerabilities may potentially be chained together to allow attackers to access active WhatsApp sessions without requiring user interaction. Apple has already released a security patch for CVE-2025-43300 and stated that the vulnerability is related to image file processing that could trigger memory corruption issues.
iPhone users-particularly those still running iOS 16-are strongly advised to update both iOS and WhatsApp to the latest available versions as soon as possible to reduce the risk of exploitation. Users who notice suspicious WhatsApp activity or suspect unauthorized account access should immediately re-verify their account using the same phone number, enable Two-Step Verification with a PIN, review account security settings, and warn contacts to ignore suspicious money transfer requests or unusual messages sent from their account.