Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Jeff Bezos's phone 'hacked by Saudi crown prince'

theguardian.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 327 posts

Re: Jeff Bezos's phone 'hacked by Saudi crown prince'

#11

Post by p1necone »

nopriorarrests wrote: post #5
danso wrote: post #3

> This analysis found it “highly probable” that the intrusion into the phone was triggered by an infected video file sent from the account of the Saudi heir to Bezos, the owner of the Washington Post. Any more information on how this type of attack works? Is it a vulnerability in Whatsapp, or was whatsapp just the delivery platform?

first paragraph: The Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos had his mobile phone “hacked” in 2018 after receiving a WhatsApp message that had apparently been sent from the personal account of the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, sources have told the Guardian. So, not snapchat, but whatsapp. And it's quite surprising for me. So, Saudis have 0 days which work on whatsapp on iphone (I suppose Bezos uses iphone)? I mean, FB and AAP…

Anyone can get pwned by a 0day. Most nation states probably have funds to buy a probably exclusive 0day and use it against a target.

Re: Jeff Bezos's phone 'hacked by Saudi crown prince'

#12

Post by danso »

henryw wrote: post #4

I'm glad it's fixed now. https://www.facebook.com/security/advisories/cve-2019-11931

At the time, FB said it didn't believe the bug had been exploited: In this instance there is no reason to believe users were impacted. [0] The alleged hack of Bezos happened in May 2018, about 18 months after the Nov 2019 bug fix. I wonder if FB's statement was just boilerplate PR or if they really did substantial forensics to have "no reason to believe users were impacted".

[0] https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2019/11/20/update-whatsapp-...

Re: Jeff Bezos's phone 'hacked by Saudi crown prince'

#13

Post by zknz »

Apocryphon wrote: post #7

So MBS or someone in Saudi intelligence is somehow behind the leak of the photos to the National Enquirer, and the subsequent divorce of the Bezos?

The Bezos's are responsible for their actions, and their decision to divorce, but yes, the leak could have been via saudis...

Re: Jeff Bezos's phone 'hacked by Saudi crown prince'

#14

Post by heavymark »

danso wrote: post #3

> This analysis found it “highly probable” that the intrusion into the phone was triggered by an infected video file sent from the account of the Saudi heir to Bezos, the owner of the Washington Post. Any more information on how this type of attack works? Is it a vulnerability in Whatsapp, or was whatsapp just the delivery platform?

https://www.facebook.com/security/advisories/cve-2019-11931

Re: Jeff Bezos's phone 'hacked by Saudi crown prince'

#15

Post by clubm8 »

I wonder how often less high profile folks get hit with stuff like this?

On one hand, zero days are rare and expensive.

OTOH someone who isn't the CEO of a major company might not notice the malware, or if they do, not know they should forward it to an organization like Citizen Lab.

Re: Jeff Bezos's phone 'hacked by Saudi crown prince'

#16

Post by Mountain_Skies »

saberience wrote: post #2

Let's assume this is how Bezos's phone was hacked for a second, does anyone think Trump would do anything about it? Sanction Saudia Arabia? Trump didn't lift a finger after the Jamal Khashoggi killing and his son-in-law is deep in various business dealings with MBS and his goons. Hell, Trump is probably happy the Saudis are hacking the phone of his perceived "enemy".

Doubt he or any other president would do anything about it. When was the last time any administration gave the Saudi government more than a weak reprimand for their antics? Some of our "allies" can do no wrong.

Re: Jeff Bezos's phone 'hacked by Saudi crown prince'

#17

Post by IfOnlyYouKnew »

Apocryphon wrote: post #7

So MBS or someone in Saudi intelligence is somehow behind the leak of the photos to the National Enquirer, and the subsequent divorce of the Bezos?

I guess Khashoggi must have really annoyed MBS. This has now cost the Saudis at least ten times as much goodwill as all anti-Saudi editorials in the Post and everywhere else together.

That, or it was a favour to MBS American friends. The other people involved (David Pecker et al) and MBS do share a few friends in the White House, who also seem obsessed with the Washington Post and Bezos himself.

Re: Jeff Bezos's phone 'hacked by Saudi crown prince'

#18

Post by nopriorarrests »

spzb wrote: post #8
nopriorarrests wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

first paragraph: The Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos had his mobile phone “hacked” in 2018 after receiving a WhatsApp message that had apparently been sent from the personal account of the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, sources have told the Guardian. So, not snapchat, but whatsapp. And it's quite surprising for me. So, Saudis have 0 days which work on whatsapp on iphone (I suppose Bezos uses iphone)? I mean, FB and AAP…

Wouldn't be that surprising. Zero days are available to the highest bidder and Saudi princes have deep pockets.

Honest question. Given that RCE's are extremely rare, can't FB and AAPL announce 100M USD bounty to get them first and patch them, avoiding bad PR and brand impact? Damn, make it 200M?! Or bad actors can easily pay 5x more to exploit said 0 day on a few targets, so hackers will sell to them instead?

Re: Jeff Bezos's phone 'hacked by Saudi crown prince'

#19

Post by penagwin »

danso wrote: post #12
henryw wrote: post #4

I'm glad it's fixed now. https://www.facebook.com/security/advisories/cve-2019-11931

At the time, FB said it didn't believe the bug had been exploited: In this instance there is no reason to believe users were impacted. [0] The alleged hack of Bezos happened in May 2018, about 18 months after the Nov 2019 bug fix. I wonder if FB's statement was just boilerplate PR or if they really did substantial forensics to have "no reason to believe users were impacted". [0] https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2019/…

Anecdotal, but a lot of times phrases similar to that are used because the real answer is "We don't have any way of knowing if users were actually impacted" and it's obviously far better for PR to phrase it that way.

Re: Jeff Bezos's phone 'hacked by Saudi crown prince'

#20

Post by jonknee »

IfOnlyYouKnew wrote: post #17
Apocryphon wrote: post #7

So MBS or someone in Saudi intelligence is somehow behind the leak of the photos to the National Enquirer, and the subsequent divorce of the Bezos?

I guess Khashoggi must have really annoyed MBS. This has now cost the Saudis at least ten times as much goodwill as all anti-Saudi editorials in the Post and everywhere else together. That, or it was a favour to MBS American friends. The other people involved (David Pecker et al) and MBS do share a few friends in the White House, who also seem obsessed with the Washington Post and Bezos himself.

Well, MBS certainly has his own reasons to not like the owner of the Washington Post.
Post reply on HN