CVE-2020-1904 Path traversal in WhatsApp Business for iOS

What is CVE-2020-1904?

CVE-2020-1904 is a medium-severity path traversal vulnerability in Facebook WhatsApp Business for iOS, published on 6 Oct 2020. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.

Official description

A path validation issue in WhatsApp for iOS prior to v2.20.61 and WhatsApp Business for iOS prior to v2.20.61 could have allowed for directory traversal overwriting files when sending specially crafted docx, xlsx, and pptx files as attachments to messages.

Weakness: CWE-22, CWE-23

Which versions are affected by CVE-2020-1904?

It affects 2 products.

Products include Whatsapp Whatsapp, Whatsapp Whatsapp Business.

How do I fix CVE-2020-1904?

No fix has been published for CVE-2020-1904 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

Upgrade, and resolve every user-supplied path against an allowed base folder before opening it. More about Path traversal.

Is CVE-2020-1904 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2020-1904 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Other vulnerabilities in Facebook WhatsApp Business for iOS

• CVE-2019-3568 WhatsApp VOIP Stack Buffer Overflow Exploited Critical 9.8
• CVE-2019-18426 WhatsApp Cross-Site Scripting Exploited High 8.2
• CVE-2025-55177 Meta Platforms WhatsApp Incorrect Authorization Exploited Medium 5.4
• CVE-2022-36934 Integer overflow in WhatsApp Business for Android Critical 9.8
• CVE-2021-24042 Memory corruption in WhatsApp Business for Android Critical 9.8

Sources

• CVE record
• NVD
• OSV
• GitHub advisory
• How this page is made

Also known as GHSA-v6f2-92p8-cg2q.