With more than one billion active users, Instagram is without a doubt one of the most popular social media apps around the world.
But if you use Instagram, a new report may ring alarm bells for you.
Researchers from Check Point have discovered a critical vulnerability in Instagram that could let a hacker take over your account simply by sending you one image.
When the image is saved and opened in the Instagram app, the flaw could let hackers gain full access to your account - including your photos and messages
Worryingly, it would also give them access to your phone’s contacts, camera and location data.
The vulnerability was found in Mozipeg, an open source, JPEG decoder, which is used by Instagram to upload images.
As a result, the researchers are also warning app developers about the potential risks of using third party code libraries in their without checking for security flaws.
Yaniv Balmas, Head of Cyber Research at Check Point said: “We strongly urge developers of software applications to vet the 3rd party code libraries they use to build their application infrastructures and make sure their integration is done properly.
“3rd party code is used in practically every single application out there, and it`s very easy to miss out on serious threats embedded in it. Today it’s Instagram, tomorrow – who knows?”
Thankfully, Facebook has now fixed the issue, having been alerted to it by Check Point.
A Facebook spokesperson said: “Check Point's report overstates a bug, which we fixed quickly and have no reason to believe impacted anyone. Through their own investigation Check Point was unable to successfully exploit this bug."
Based on the findings, Check Point is urging consumers to take the time to check the permissions that an app has on your smartphone.
Mr Balmas added: “This “application is asking for permission” message may seem like a burden, and it`s easy to just click ‘Yes’ and forget about it.
“But in practice this is one of the strongest lines of defense everyone has against mobile cyber-attacks, and I would advise everyone to take a minute and think, do I really want to give this application access to my camera my microphone, and so on?”
