GB WhatsApp APK requests 32 system permissions by default upon installation (the official one only requires 9), of which high-risk permissions are 44% (including 14 ones such as “Read Text messages” and “Modify system Settings”). According to Microsoft Threat Intelligence Center’s report in 2025, there is a 27% chance that these permissions will be utilized to inject malicious code. Technical analysis shows that the rate of its forced takeover of the IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity) of mobile phones is every 15 minutes (the official version does not have this behavior). A case from the Sao Paulo State Court in Brazil illustrates that in 2025 this led to SIM card information of 830,000 subscribers being leaked at an average cost of recovery per victim of 380 US dollars.
Location access is highly controlled: Even when GPS isn’t enabled, the app persists in collecting location data using base station tritriangle positioning (at ±120-meter accuracy) and MAC address scanning by Wi-Fi (3.2 times per second). A German 2025 Berlin District Court decision showed that such behavior was a violation of Article 5(1)(c) of the GDPR, and the developer was fined up to 5.7 million euros for a single transaction. Misuse of storage permissions is particularly egregious. Reverse engineering has shown that IT scans all files (including deleted ccache) in the DCIM folder (album path). The Egyptian cyber security company Mideast IT found 23% of the variant copies using this permission to steal photos of bank cards (with a gain average of $1,200 per incident).
There is more than the necessary sensor permissions: The accelerometer’s sampling rate is 100Hz (only a 10Hz requirement is needed to support normal communication), and the accuracy of the gyroscope data is needed to be ±0.5 degrees (default is ±2 degrees) and this results in a loss of 19% of Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra device’s battery life (SOT reduces from 10.1 hours to 8.2 hours). Kaspersky Lab tests in 2025 showed that the probability of microphone permissions being silently activated in the background was 14% (with an average cumulative duration of 6 minutes and 23 seconds per day). Of the spyware cases examined and dealt with by the Indonesian Communications Authority, 41% were conducted through the audio monitoring module of GB WhatsApp APK.
User permission management statistics show that 69% of the 18-24 age group accept all permission requests (38% higher than users over 35 years old), primarily due to its provided 5,000-person group management (official limit of 256 people) and auto-reply function (response time 0.3 seconds). But the Dutch company EclecticIQ monitored and found that “permission bunching attacks” surfaced 37 times per thousand installations – when users refused necessary permissions, applications would demand device administrator permissions aggressively (the breakthrough probability was 19% on the Android 14 system). Other solutions such as the Shelter isolation sandbox reduce risk permission contact surface by 72% but set the message synchronization delay to jump from the present 210ms to 480ms.