A security hole trusted by experts to spy on messages on Apple iPhones and other devices has been closed. Researchers at Citizen’s Laboratory said they discovered the vulnerability when analyzing the Saudi Arabian activist’s phone. Citizen Lab said Monday that the device was infected with Pegasus, an NSO surveillance software.
Apple on Monday released software updates for iPhones and iPods to close the security gap. For security to take effect, updates must be installed by the user. Citizen Lab estimates that vulnerability has been affected since at least February 2021.
The vulnerability is called zero day exploitation. Vulnerabilities are named because they are not known to the software provider or the general public, so they can be used in secret. Among other things, they are specifically searched by intelligence services and used for surveillance activities. Such weak points are considered particularly valuable, and they are generally used specifically against individual target individuals.
According to Apple, the vulnerability can be used with the help of a prepared PDF file. Citizen Laboratory announced the group at a safety break last week.
The NSO was last targeted in mid-July. Opposition groups called for the beleagured PM to resign. At the time, 37 smartphones were said to have found traces of successful or offensive attempts by journalists, human rights activists, their family members and businessmen. Similar to previous allegations, Pegasus objected that “Pegasus was only sold to law enforcement and intelligence agencies by governments that were censored for the sole purpose of saving lives by preventing crime and terrorism.”
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