Security News

Israeli spyware vendor QuaDream is allegedly shutting down its operations in the coming days, less than a week after its hacking toolset was exposed by Citizen Lab and Microsoft. The company's board of directors are looking to sell off its intellectual property, the report further added.

It's also suspected that the company abused a zero-click exploit dubbed ENDOFDAYS in iOS 14 to deploy spyware as a zero-day in version 14.4 and 14.4.2. While QuaDream is not directly involved in targeting, it is known to sell its "Exploitation services and malware" to government customers, the tech giant assessed with high confidence.

Reports from Microsoft and The University of Toronto's Citizen Lab both conclude that government-serving spyware maker QuaDream used a zero-click exploit targeting Apple devices running iOS 14 to deliver spyware marketed under the name Reign to victims' phones. Once somehow up and running via this method, the spyware was able to exfiltrate various elements of device, carrier, and network info; search for and retrieve files; use the camera in the background; monitor calls; access the iOS keychain; generate iCloud one-time passwords; and more, said Microsoft.

Microsoft and Citizen Lab discovered commercial spyware made by an Israel-based company QuaDream used to compromise the iPhones of high-risk individuals using a zero-click exploit named ENDOFDAYS. The attackers targeted a zero-day vulnerability affecting iPhones running iOS 1.4 up to 14.4.2 between January 2021 and November 2021, using what Citizen Lab described as backdated and "Invisible iCloud calendar invitations." Compromised devices belonged to "At least five civil society victims of QuaDream's spyware and exploits in North America, Central Asia, Southeast Asia, Europe, and the Middle East," Citizen Lab researchers said.

Simply put, there were zero days during which even the most proactive and cybersecurity conscious users amongst us could have been patched in advance of the crooks. Just to be clear: the Apple Safari browser uses WebKit for "Processing web content" on all Apple devices, although third-party browsers such as Firefox, Edge and Chromium don't use WebKit on Mac.

Apple's App Store rules mean that all browsers on iPhones and iPads must use WebKit, making this sort of bug a truly cross-browser problem for mobile Apple devices.Kernel code execution bugs are inevitably much more serious than app-level bugs, because the kernel is responsible for managing the security of the entire system, including what permissions apps can acquire, and how freely apps can share files and data between themselves.

DOUG. Wi-Fi hacks, World Backup Day, and supply chain blunders. DUCK. Very simply put, the only backup you will ever regret is the one you did not make.

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has ordered federal agencies today to patch security vulnerabilities exploited as zero-days in recent attacks to install commercial spyware on mobile devices. One month later, a complex chain of multiple 0-days and n-days was exploited to target Samsung Android phones running up-to-date Samsung Internet Browser versions.

A number of zero-day vulnerabilities that were addressed last year were exploited by commercial spyware vendors to target Android and iOS devices, Google's Threat Analysis Group has revealed. Upon clicking, the URLs redirected the recipients to web pages hosting exploits for Android or iOS, before they were redirected again to legitimate news or shipment-tracking websites.

Google's Threat Analysis Group discovered several exploit chains using Android, iOS, and Chrome zero-day and n-day vulnerabilities to install commercial spyware and malicious apps on targets' devices. The attackers targeted iOS and Android users with separate exploit chains as part of a first campaign spotted in November 2022.