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Apple alerts users in 92 nations to mercenary spyware attacks

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Re: Apple alerts users in 92 nations to mercenary spyware attacks

#121

Post by 1oooqooq »

the_mar wrote: post #37
__jonas wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the Apple Support page here: https://support.apple.com/en-in/102174 In the screenshot it says the threat notification was sent "via email and iMessage", so it would not be displayed in any different way on your phone, which I also find surprising. I definitely wouldn't expect to receive something like this as an Email, and I have turned off iMessage.

Just out of curiosity why would you have imessage turned off?

*tinfoil hat on

imessage and rcs (and arguably mms, although that started as cost cutting) are backdoors for the legal protections on mining telephony provider metadata for marketing. with those two "opt in" (lol) techs, all safeguards are off.

Re: Apple alerts users in 92 nations to mercenary spyware attacks

#122

Post by brevitea »

bee_rider wrote: post #8

There’s a reddit thread by somebody who got one of these: https://old.reddit.com/r/iphone/comments/1c10jai/i_have_rece... The interesting thing IMO is they claim to just be some random college student. Which seems believable because if they were a real secret squirrel I guess they wouldn’t ask reddit about it, haha. I wonder if the hackers are targeting people based on phone numbers or something. (I could imagine a c…

[dead]

Re: Apple alerts users in 92 nations to mercenary spyware attacks

#123

Post by 1oooqooq »

ryandrake wrote: post #47
t-sauer wrote: post #13

If someone is interested how the message actually looks like, a user on reddit posted it and a previous version from 2023 (although it doesn't include everything): https://www.reddit.com/r/iphone/comments/1c10jai/i_have_rece...

It looks like the message encourages users to update "to the latest software version, iOS 16.6." I wonder if their message is different to users on devices which no longer can be updated beyond iOS 15, like iPhone 7, 7 Plus, SE and so on.

why do you think devices out of support date got any message at all?

Re: Apple alerts users in 92 nations to mercenary spyware attacks

#124

Post by vinay_ys »

t-sauer wrote: post #19
1970-01-01 wrote: post #11

Good way to get Pegasus devs to blink, but nothing more.

Maybe my thinking is a bit naive, but I would assume that the message signals that Apple found a new way to identify (and therefore maybe neutralize) Pegasus which is probably at least a medium annoyance to them.

If you were the hacker operating a remote command and control for such a targeted attack, you would immediately know if Apple or some other mechanism silently blocked your exploit kill chain. This notification to users tells you nothing new. If something doesn't work, you move on to the next exploit available to you. It's not likely that they would shut shop and go away just because apple notified users. Only thing this does is Apple gets more users to turn on their protection mechanisms like lockdown mode which makes it more valuable to find vulnerabilities in that (as that is the new baseline now). And so goes the tale. It's a never ending escalatory game.

Re: Apple alerts users in 92 nations to mercenary spyware attacks

#125

Post by 1oooqooq »

spxneo wrote: post #117
user_7832 wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm seriously considering changing to Apple after this. Ironically that may be worse for you. iMessage is probably a critical step in 60% (or more) of these exploits, and the various unicode/pdf etc rendering engines are responsible in many exploits. Android's open-source nature likely means that a lot of these things are found by security researchers first. Don't forget that zerodium still pays more for an android…

you changed my mind successfully thank you but what about dumb phones from late 2000s like my Samsung Alias 2? what kind of sick bastard would make zero days for this

for those you don't need 0days. you can use 360*20days just fine. it's like there was any firmware update for them ever.

Re: Apple alerts users in 92 nations to mercenary spyware attacks

#126

Post by tialaramex »

jsheard wrote: post #21
pksebben wrote: post #10

Between the Metaverse, "mercenary spyware", AI war targeting, and death drones, I keep wondering who it is that read Neuromancer and thought; "What a rosy picture! How can we realize this stunning vision of a future-to-be?"

Sci-Fi Author: In my book I invented the Torment Nexus as a cautionary tale Tech Company: At long last, we have created the Torment Nexus from classic sci-fi novel Don't Create The Torment Nexus https://twitter.com/AlexBlechman/status/1457842724128833538

To be fair, somebody will always decide what you wrote was a warning and they should fear it, even if you specifically intended a utopia, just as people insist on rooting for and even imitating the bad guys from stories because they misunderstood "cool" as "good".

Example: Some people think San Junipero, the one positive Black Mirror episode with an actual Happily Ever After romantic ending is a dystopian vision.

Some people think the Primer, the technological device at the heart of Diamond Age, is the problem, not the Neo-Victorian aristocrats like Elizabeth's parents with their pseudo-colonial control over part of China, not the huge corporations whose greed is tearing the world apart and their engineers like Fiona's father, nor the Cyberpunks left over from a previous era like Nell's father - no the problem is the machine.

In the Tweet framing it's easy, it's named a Torment Nexus and the book is literally titled "Don't Create The Torment Nexus" but what about the Horseless Carriage? The Novel? The Television? Are we creating the Urban Sprawl, the Wasted Youth, are we helping to Manufacture Consent ? Or maybe these are Freedom and Art for the Masses ? Framing.

Re: Apple alerts users in 92 nations to mercenary spyware attacks

#127

Post by samatman »

Lendal wrote: post #30

Pet peeve: This story alternates between "nations" and "countries" as if they were synonyms. A nation is a group of people sharing cultural, ethnic, and historical ties. There are many more nations than there are countries, especially within the US. A country has a political boundary, a flag and an anthem. It's one thing to use a word in the wrong way, because maybe you don't know the other word exists, and that's ok…

Hence the name of the major intercountryal governing body, the United Countries.

Re: Apple alerts users in 92 nations to mercenary spyware attacks

#128

Post by 1oooqooq »

2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote: post #28
kmeisthax wrote: post #15

Note that "mercenary spyware" is the politically correct term Apple chose for "state-sponsored attacker" because Modi complained that Apple was exposing them for using illegal NSO Group spyware.

Interesting use of language on your part as well- what makes the NSO Group spyware illegal ?

ironically, DMCA does.

Re: Apple alerts users in 92 nations to mercenary spyware attacks

#129

Post by onedognight »

user_7832 wrote: post #111
spxneo wrote: post #96

It's probably far worse with Android users that Google is not disclosing. I'm seriously considering changing to Apple after this. Not that its secure but that they are willing to go to this length to communicate it.

> I'm seriously considering changing to Apple after this. Ironically that may be worse for you. iMessage is probably a critical step in 60% (or more) of these exploits, and the various unicode/pdf etc rendering engines are responsible in many exploits. Android's open-source nature likely means that a lot of these things are found by security researchers first. Don't forget that zerodium still pays more for an android…

Apple specifically acknowledges this and has Lockdown Mode to address it. If you care about security you should enable it. Of course you’ll not be able to watch YouTube videos, but you’ll be safer.

Re: Apple alerts users in 92 nations to mercenary spyware attacks

#130

Post by pjderouen »

bee_rider wrote: post #8

There’s a reddit thread by somebody who got one of these: https://old.reddit.com/r/iphone/comments/1c10jai/i_have_rece... The interesting thing IMO is they claim to just be some random college student. Which seems believable because if they were a real secret squirrel I guess they wouldn’t ask reddit about it, haha. I wonder if the hackers are targeting people based on phone numbers or something. (I could imagine a c…

It could be that they’re related to a target. I’ve done a lot of hobby OSINT and sometimes finding a target is using off-center targeting to effectively triangulate or pivot.
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