/
Navigation
Chronicles
Browse all articles
Explore
Semantic exploration
Research
Entity momentum
Nexus
Correlations & relationships
Story Arc
Topic evolution
Drift Map
Semantic trajectory animation
Posts
Analysis & commentary
Pulse API
Tech news intelligence API
Browse
Entities
Companies, people, products, technologies
Domains
Browse by publication source
Handles
Browse by social media handle
Detection
Concept Search
Semantic similarity search
High Impact Stories
Top coverage by position
Sentiment Analysis
Positive/negative coverage
Anomaly Detection
Unusual coverage patterns
Analysis
Rivalry Report
Compare two entities head-to-head
Semantic Pivots
Narrative discontinuities
Crisis Response
Event recovery patterns
Connected
Search: /
Command: ⌘K
Embeddings: large
TEXXR

Chronicles

The story behind the story

days · browse · Enter similar · o open

Citizen Lab says it found evidence of ForcedEntry on an activist's iPhone and the exploit worked on iPads, Macs, and Watches as well, prior to recent updates

Citizen Lab says the ForcedEntry flaw affects all iPhones, iPads, Macs and Watches  —  Apple has released security updates … Source: The Citizen Lab .

TechCrunch Zack Whittaker

Discussion

  • @racheltobac Rachel Tobac on x
    Big Apple 0-day in the wild. If you have an elevated threat model (activist, journalist, being harassed, in the public eye, etc) would recommend updating software on all Apple devices within the hour, if possible. All folks with all threat models, by EOD. https://techcrunch.com/.…
  • @shanehuntley Shane Huntley on x
    Since at least February, NSO, provider of choice to repressive regimes, has been able to silently take over any iPhone/Mac with a zero click exploit. Great find by Citizen Lab and good work by Apple to patch, but it shows how far away we all are from any real security. https://tw…
  • @ericgeller Eric Geller on x
    Apple just fixed a serious vulnerability in iOS that Citizen Lab discovered being used to spy on a Saudi activist, possibly through NSO Group software. The “zero-click” hack relied on an invisible message containing a malicious PDF. https://www.vice.com/... https://support.apple.…
  • @drewharwell Drew Harwell on x
    @citizenlab ... More news here: Amnesty's Security Lab has continued testing phones, and at least 10 of the 15 new confirmed infections / attempts were on the #PegasusProject list https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... Human-rights activist and princess ally among the hacked: https:…
  • @bidar411 Musadiq Bidar on x
    Apple commends @citizenlab for helping it quickly develop an urgent patch to address a critical spyware vulnerability Statement from Apple's head of Security Engineering and Architecture, Ivan Krstić: https://twitter.com/...
  • @theclemreport Clem on x
    Heads up for the blue bubbles in the Twitter fam #Twitterfam https://twitter.com/...
  • @nicoleperlroth Nicole Perlroth on x
    The only reason I've ever been able to track government abuse of NSO spyware is because someone came directly to me or @citizenlab with a suspicious link. Zero-click remote exploitation makes defenders and journalists' jobs so much harder. https://twitter.com/...
  • @viss @viss on x
    wow. they weaponized gifs. https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
  • @kaepora Nadim Kobeissi on x
    Citizen Lab has seems to have quietly dropped its practice of making nation-state attribution based on inadequate evidence. This is really good news. I hope this will continue and, optimally, that such previous claims will be revisited/played down. https://citizenlab.ca/...
  • @ericgarland Eric Garland on x
    Meanwhile, Netanyahu's criminal trials have started up again! Excellent timing. https://twitter.com/...
  • @k3ym0 @k3ym0 on x
    @evacide and until @Apple starts to seriously improve the bug bounty program, there's little incentive (other than ethics/morals) to persuade people from selling their 0-days to NSO, or other entities with an adversarial intent.
  • @k3ym0 @k3ym0 on x
    @evacide I think it's important that we all remember that NSO likely has an entire bank of 0-days, and this just means that they're going to have to rewrite the malware with a new one
  • @zackwhittaker Zack Whittaker on x
    New: Citizen Lab says NSO's “ForcedEntry” zero-day exploit, which skirts iOS 14's ‘BlastDoor’ protections, works on *all Apple devices*. Apple has updates out for iPhones, iPads, Macs, and Watches. Citizen Lab urges device owners to update immediately. https://techcrunch.com/...
  • @jsrailton John Scott-Railton on x
    🚨 UPDATE YOUR APPLE DEVICES NOW🚨 We caught a zero-click, zero day iMessage exploit used by NSO Group's #Pegasus spyware. Target? Saudi activist. We reported the #FORCEDENTRY exploit to @Apple, which just pushed an emergency update. THREAD 1/ https://citizenlab.ca/... https://twit…
  • @nicoleperlroth Nicole Perlroth on x
    BIG NEWS: Do you own an Apple product? UPDATE IT NOW. New zero-click NSO Group #Pegasus spyware has been infecting iPhones, Macs, Watches. This is the Holy Grail of surveillance capabilities and you are vulnerable until you update. https://www.nytimes.com/...
  • @patrickwardle Patrick Wardle on x
    Ah, more iOS vulnerabilities being exploited as 0days in the wild 😱😭 See iOS 14.8 security notes: https://support.apple.com/... https://twitter.com/...
  • @markgurman Mark Gurman on x
    Apple says Messages exploit “not a threat to the overwhelming majority of our users” and that it is working on new protections. It also thanks Citizen Lab for obtaining a sample of the exploit and its help fixing the issue. https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
  • @slightlylate Alex Russell on x
    It's absolutely medieval that Apple requires a ~300MiB download + a system reboot — ~15 minutes end-to-end — to apply a WebKit patch. https://9to5mac.com/... See also: https://infrequently.org/... https://twitter.com/...
  • @dangillmor Dan Gillmor on x
    Apple could spend a rounding error of a rounding error of its cash and put the evil NSO out of business. But it just reacts. Meanwhile everyone remains at risk from these slimeballs. https://twitter.com/...
  • @nicoleperlroth Nicole Perlroth on x
    Tell me one more time how zero-days aren't a big deal. https://twitter.com/...
  • @evan_greer Evan Greer on x
    If you have an iPhone update it right now. And then get to one of these protests to keep Apple's own proposed proprietary spyware off your phone too! https://nospyphone.com/#map https://twitter.com/...
  • @psythor James O'Malley on x
    Massive news. Tim Cook must be absolutely relieved the iPhone 13 announcement on Tuesday has presumably already been prerecorded. https://twitter.com/...
  • @hrbrmstr @hrbrmstr on x
    🚨macOS Catalina folks: Apple dropped 11.6 that has a fixs for a _nasty_ *actively exploited* vulns in (CVE-2021-30860) PDF ops and (CVE-2021-30858) WebKit. You know the drill. https://support.apple.com/...
  • @jjz1600 James J. Zogby on x
    So now they tell us! The Israeli co. #Pegasus has no-click spyware that can steal your data, turn on your camera, read encrypted messages, & make them available to countries that buy their services. It's cyber rape & a crime. Congress must investigate. https://www.nytimes.com/...
  • @mehdirhasan Mehdi Hasan on x
    When will Congress hold hearings on this? How is the NSO Group allowed to get away with this stuff? A foreign (yes, Israeli) company jeopardizing the basic liberties of Americans. Aren't Republicans supposed to be obsessed with liberties or is that only for masks and vaccines?? h…
  • @donie Donie O'Sullivan on x
    Absolutely terrifying. Complete access to your iPhone without even clicking anything. https://twitter.com/...
  • @juddlegum Judd Legum on x
    Tweeting this while updating my phone. https://twitter.com/...
  • @wajahatali Wajahat Ali on x
    Researchers at Citizen Lab found that NSO Group, an Israeli spyware company, had infected Apple products without so much as a click. Nice, nice. https://www.nytimes.com/...
  • @fightfortheftr @fightfortheftr on x
    Yes. Do this. But then go to https://nospyphone.com/ to tell @Apple not to install their own proprietary malware on your iPhone. #NoSpyPhone #AppleEvent https://twitter.com/...
  • @zackwhittaker Zack Whittaker on x
    Citizen Lab's findings are out. If you own an Apple device, update today. “The exploit, which we call FORCEDENTRY, targets Apple's image rendering library, and was effective against Apple iOS, MacOS and WatchOS devices.” https://citizenlab.ca/...
  • @maddiestone Maddie Stone on x
    Apple patches two in-the-wild 0-days: 1 in CoreGraphics (CVE-2021-30860) for iOS and 1 in WebKit (CVE-2021-30858) https://support.apple.com/...
  • @lukolejnik Lukasz Olejnik on x
    iOS 14.8 come with two inportant security fixes. “maliciously crafted PDF may lead to arbitrary code execution”, “maliciously crafted web content may lead to arbitrary code execution”. Bugs actively exploited, so: update. https://support.apple.com/...