Security News

Apple devices are again under attack, with a zero-click, zero-day vulnerability used to deliver Pegasus spyware to iPhones discovered in the wild. Researchers at Citizen Lab are referring to the exploit as BLASTPASS. The team said they immediately disclosed their findings to Apple when they first discovered an infected device owned by an individual employed by a Washington DC-based civil society organization with international offices.

Apple on Thursday released emergency security updates for iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and watchOS to address two zero-day flaws that have been exploited in the wild to deliver NSO Group's Pegasus mercenary spyware. In a separate alert, Citizen Lab revealed that the twin flaws have been weaponized as part of a zero-click iMessage exploit chain named BLASTPASS to deploy Pegasus on fully-patched iPhones running iOS 16.6.

North Korean threat actors are once again attempting to compromise security researchers' machines by employing a zero-day exploit. The warning comes from Google's own security researchers Clement Lecigne and Maddie Stone, who detailed the latest campaign mounted by government-backed attackers.

Threat actors associated with North Korea are continuing to target the cybersecurity community using a zero-day bug in unspecified software over the past several weeks to infiltrate their machines. A search on X shows that the now-suspended account has been active since at least October 2022, with the actor releasing proof-of-concept exploit code for high-severity privilege escalation flaws in the Windows Kernel such as CVE-2021-34514 and CVE-2022-21881.

Apple has patched two zero-day vulnerabilities exploited to deliver NSO Group's Pegasus spyware."The exploit chain was capable of compromising iPhones running the latest version of iOS without any interaction from the victim," Citizen Lab shared.

Apple released emergency security updates to fix two new zero-day vulnerabilities exploited in attacks targeting iPhone and Mac users, for a total of 13 exploited zero-days patched since the start of the year. Since the start of the year, Apple has patched 13 zero-day bugs exploited in attacks against devices running iOS, macOS, iPadOS, and watchOS. While Apple has yet to disclose details regarding attacks exploiting the flaws patched today, it acknowledged that CVE-2023-41064 was found and reported by Citizen Labs, whose researchers have previously shared information on other Apple zero-days exploited to deploy commercial spyware on computers and iPhones in targeted attacks.

Google's Threat Analysis Group says North Korean state hackers are again targeting security researchers in attacks using at least one zero-day in an undisclosed popular software. Researchers attacked in this campaign are involved in vulnerability research and development, according to Google's team of security experts that protects the company's users from state-sponsored attacks.

The September 2023 Android security updates tackle 33 vulnerabilities, including a zero-day bug currently targeted in the wild. "Exploitation for many issues on Android is made more difficult by enhancements in newer versions of the Android platform. We encourage all users to update to the latest version of Android where possible."

Google has rolled out monthly security patches for Android to address a number of flaws, including a zero-day bug that it said may have been exploited in the wild. Tracked as CVE-2023-35674, the high-severity vulnerability is described as a case of privilege escalation impacting the Android Framework.

An Atlas VPN zero-day vulnerability affecting the Linux client leaks a user's real IP address simply by visiting a website. Atlas VPN is a VPN product that offers a cost-effective solution based on WireGuard and supports all major operating systems.