Apple fix flaw that allowed hackers to infect Apple iPhones

BOSTON — Apple released an emergency software patch to fix a security vulnerability that researchers said could allow hackers to directly infect iPhones and other Apple devices without any user action.

The researchers at the University of Toronto's Citizen Lab said the flaw allowed spyware from the world s most infamous hacker-for-hire firm, NSO Group, to directly infect the iPhone of a Saudi activist.

The flaw affected all Apple operating system, researchers said.

It was the first time a so-called zero click exploit had been detected and analyzed, said the researchers, who discovered the malicious code on Sept. 7 and immediately alerted Apple. They said they had high confidence the Israeli company NSO Group was behind the attack, adding that the targeted activist asked to remain anonymous.

We do not necessarily attribute this attack to the Saudi government, said researcher Bill Marczak.

Although Citizen Lab previously demonstrated evidence of Zero-Click Exploits being used to hack Al-Jazeera journalists and other targets, this is the first case where the exploit has been captured so we can find out how it works, said Marczak.

Although security experts say that average iPhone, iPad and Mac user generally need not worry — such attacks tend to be highly targeted — the discovery still alarmed security professionals.

Malicious image files were transferred to the activist's phone via the iMessage instant messaging app before it was hacked with NSO s Pegasus spyware, which opens a phone to eavesdropping and remote data theft, Marczak said. It was found during a second examination of the phone, which had been infected by forensic investigators in March. He said the malicious file causes devices to crash.

In a blog post, Apple said it would issuing a security update for iPhones and iPads because a maliciously crafted PDF file could lead to them being hacked. It said that it was aware that the issue has been exploited and cited Citizen Labs. Apple didn t immediately answer questions regarding whether this was the first time it fixed a zero-click.

Citizen Lab called forcedentry exploit and said it was effective against Apple iOS, MacOS and WatchOS devices.

Researcher John Scott-Railton said the news highlights the importance of protecting popular messaging apps against such attacks. Chat apps are becoming a major way that nation-states and mercenary hackers can gain access to phones, he said. Why is it s so important for companies to make sure that they are locked down as possible. Researchers said it also exposes — again – that NSO business model involves selling spyware to governments that will abuse it, not just to law enforcement officials chasing cyber criminals and terrorists.

If Pegasus was in to get used against criminals and terrorists, we would never have found this stuff, said Marczak.

For Facebook s WhatsApp was also allegedly targeted by an NSO zero-click exploit In October 2019, Facebook sued NSO in U.S. Federal Court for allegedly targeting some 1,400 users of the encrypted messaging service with spyware.

In July, a global media consortium published a damning report on how clients of NSO Group have been spying for years on journalists, human rights activists, political dissidents — and people close to them, with the hacker-for- hire group directly involved in the targeting.

Amnesty International confirmed 37 successful Pegasus infections based on a leaked targeting list whose source was not disclosed or disclosed.

One involved the fiancee of the Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, just four days after he was killed in Istanbul in 2018 at Saudi Consulate in Saudi Arabia. The CIA attributed the murder to the Saudi government.

The latest revelations also prompted calls for an investigation into whether Hungary's right-wing government used Pegasus to secretly monitor critical journalists, lawyers and business figures. India s parliament also erupted in protests as opposition lawmakers accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi government of using NSO Groups to spy on political opponents and others.

France is also trying to get to the bottom of accusations that President Emmanuel Macron and some members of his government may have been targeted by an unidentified Moroccan security service using Pegasus in 2019. Morocco, a key North African ally, denied such reports and is taking legal action to counter allegations implicating the French Kingdom in the spyware scandal.