![]() The company has previously acknowledged similarly serious flaws and, on what Strafach estimated to be perhaps a dozen occasions, has noted that it was aware of reports that such security holes had been exploited. Will Strafach, a security researcher, said he had seen no technical analysis of the vulnerabilities that Apple has just patched. Its spyware is known to have been used in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America against journalists, dissidents and human rights activists. NSO Group has been blacklisted by the US commerce department. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.Ĭommercial spyware companies such as Israel’s NSO Group are known for identifying and taking advantage of such flaws, exploiting them in malware that surreptitiously infects targets’ smartphones, siphons their contents and surveils the targets in real time. For more information see our Privacy Policy. Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. The company says its customers for such weaknesses are “government institutions (mainly from Europe and North America)”. ![]() The broker Zerodium, for instance, will pay “up to $500,000” for a security weakness that can be used to hack a user through Safari, and up to $2m for a fully developed piece of malware that can hack an iPhone without a user needing to click on anything. Such weaknesses are hugely valuable on the open market, where cyberweapon brokers will buy them for hundreds of thousands, or millions, of dollars. Until the fix was released on Wednesday, the vulnerabilities will have been classed as “zero-day” bugs, because there has been a fix available for them for zero days. Those who should be particularly attentive to updating their software are “people who are in the public eye”, such as activists or journalists who might be the targets of sophisticated nation-state spying, Tobac said. Rachel Tobac, the CEO of SocialProof Security, said Apple’s explanation of the vulnerability meant a hacker could get “full admin access to the device” so that they can “execute any code as if they are you, the user”. It credited an anonymous researcher or researchers for disclosing both.Īnyone with an iPhone released since 2015, an iPad released since 2014 or a Mac running macOS Monterey can download the update by opening up the settings menu on their mobile device, or choosing “software update” on the “about this Mac” menu on their computer. The other affects WebKit, the underlying technology of the Safari web browser.įor each of the bugs, the company said it was “aware of a report that this issue may have been actively exploited,” though it provided no further details. It has also been reported that the FBI is investigating NSO Group, and Israel has set up a senior inter-ministerial team to examine the allegations surrounding how the spyware is being used.One of the software weaknesses affects the kernel, the deepest layer of the operating system that all the devices have in common, Apple said. Mr Marczak said on Monday: "If Pegasus was only being used against criminals and terrorists, we never would have found this stuff." More than 1,000 individuals in 50 countries were allegedly selected for potential surveillance - including 189 journalists and more than 600 politicians and government officials, according to Paris-based journalism non-profit Forbidden Stories and Amnesty International, as well as their media partners. NSO Group says that its spyware is only used by governments to hack the mobile phones of terrorists and serious criminals, but a leaked list featuring more than 50,000 phone numbers of interest to the company's clients suggested that it is being used much more broadly. In July it was reported that NSO Group's spyware had been used to target journalists, political dissidents and human rights activists. ![]() This meant the phone was able to spy on its user, without them even knowing.Ĭitizen Lab researcher John Scott-Railton said: "Popular chat apps are at risk of becoming the soft underbelly of device security. Mr Marczak said that malicious files were put on the Saudi activist's phone via the iMessage app before the phone was hacked with NSO's Pegasus spyware. Security experts have said that the average user does not need to be too concerned, as such attacks tend to be highly targeted, but the exploit was still alarming. Image: Experts say the average user does not need to be too concerned, as such attacks tend to be highly targeted ![]()
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