-
Russia appears to be targeting journalists with spyware known as Pegasus.
-
Pegasus is a “zero-click” software, hacking phones by sending texts that don’t need to be opened.
-
The software has targeted dozens of journalists, activists, and politicians in recent years.
It’s not like Pegasus is exploiting a single bug in iOS, there are probably hundreds of different ways Pegasus got onto phones over the years. Known security bugs get patched.
Pegasus isn’t a single piece of software, it’s a big toolkit, constantly updated. It’s a race similar to ads vs. ad blockers.
It’s not a problem exclusive to iOS either. Pegasus works on Android phones as well.
Code has been analyzed from several versions of it.
Edit: the code and analysis report available here:
(Edit: it amazes me how much people will defend/rationalize the most valuable corporation ever known to put more effort into the camera being placed 2mm to the left than an exploit that gets people killed.)
That Apple (especially) can’t mitigate against it is pretty damning.
Regardless what Pegasus is made of, it exploits vulnerabilities. Use a rock, a bat, or hard boiled egg and you can break a cheap window. It’s the window that is insecure. Not the methods used.
A trillion dollar company ought to be able to put up a bit more than plexiglass.
And the mega corps ought to be working together on this. Imagine if it got out into the wild.
Remember spectre?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spectre_(security_vulnerability)
I am not a lawyer.
Theres literally a functioning business model of “find zero-day exploits for software X and sell that info to the highest bidder”. There is actively many huge bounties for currently working exploits that you, random dude on the internet, can get if you can show that an unknown bug can be used to gain access to some software. Pegasus is one of the groups buying the exploits and then using it.
It is a perpetual cat and mouse game. Every time that Apple is made aware of an exploit they patch it asap, but that doesn’t mean they’ve fixed every exploit. You can’t fix a bug unless you know it’s there.
Really? An entire economy based on hacking, exploits, and exfiltration? (Edit: I guess I need this: /s, because, /whoosh)
Again. A 2 TRILLION DOLLAR COMPANY, should be able to find the resources to not only find these exploits, but be able to more vigorously check their own code on their own platform on their own hardware in their own labs.
Doubly since it affects a broad range of hardware/software/firmware, and since these exploits essentially own everything, and it is targeted at high value targets including members of state, journos, advocates and dissenters, it would seem necessary to develop better security in tandem with the other half of the monopoly and OEM’S and national security agencies.
It isn’t just a bug that erases your favorite cat pics. Worst case, these exploits can erase your life if you end up saying/knowing/thinking something someone doesn’t like.
I find it difficult to believe after 3 years, multiple os updates, code changes, hardware/chip redesign, the same exploit(s) have remained so thoroughly effective, and the best a company can do is “lockdown”
You’re already owned by then.
hardware based speculation is hard to patch compared to most exploits that are just bad programming mistakes due to two factors. one being its hardware and its hard to patch out hardware and 2. fixing it would lead to severe drop in performance. A name of a very recent one would be Retbleed.
Yet, if you check your dmesg you’ll find innumerable methods of mitigation against such exploits.
A software patch for hardware issue.
Personally, I’d rather the drop in performance than the Kashoggi treatment.
