By using this site, you agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Accept
10alert.com10alert.com
  • Threats
    • WordPress ThreatsDanger
    Threats
    A cyber or cybersecurity threat is a malicious act that seeks to damage data, steal data, or disrupt digital life in general. Cyber threats include…
    Show More
    Top News
    What is an Exploit? -Kaspersky Daily
    8 months ago
    Darkhotel APT in luxury Asian hotels
    8 months ago
    TeslaCrypt 2.0 ransomware improved version
    8 months ago
    Latest News
    Triangulation: Trojan for iOS | Kaspersky official blog
    2 days ago
    Wordfence Intelligence Weekly WordPress Vulnerability Report (May 22, 2023 to May 28, 2023)
    2 days ago
    Safeguards against firmware signed with stolen MSI keys
    4 days ago
    WPDeveloper Addresses Privilege Escalation Vulnerability in ReviewX WordPress Plugin
    4 days ago
  • Fix
    Fix
    Troubleshooting guide you need when errors, bugs or technical glitches might ruin your digital experience.
    Show More
    Top News
    Keylogger found on 5500 sites running WordPress
    Keylogger found on 5500 sites running WordPress
    8 months ago
    Windows 11 build 22622.575 (KB5016694) releases in the Beta Channel
    8 months ago
    How to create restore point on Windows 11
    8 months ago
    Latest News
    How automatically delete unused files from my Downloads folder?
    4 months ago
    Now you can speed up any video in your browser
    4 months ago
    How to restore access to a file after EFS or view it on another computer?
    4 months ago
    18 Proven Tips to Speed Up Your WordPress Site and Improve SEO | 2023 Guide
    5 months ago
  • How To
    How ToShow More
    Dynamic data collection with Zaraz Worker Variables
    Dynamic data collection with Zaraz Worker Variables
    1 day ago
    Reduce latency and increase cache hits with Regional Tiered Cache
    Reduce latency and increase cache hits with Regional Tiered Cache
    2 days ago
    Cloudflare is deprecating Railgun
    Cloudflare is deprecating Railgun
    2 days ago
    What is two-factor authentication | Kaspersky official blog
    5 days ago
    Acer refreshes Windows 11 PCs for work and play: Swift Edge 16 and Predator Triton 16
    7 days ago
  • News
    News
    This category of resources includes the latest technology news and updates, covering a wide range of topics and innovations in the tech industry. From new…
    Show More
    Top News
    How to create local account on Windows 10
    4 months ago
    How to enable Nearby Sharing on Windows 11
    4 months ago
    How to enable Previous Versions to recover files on Windows 11
    3 months ago
    Latest News
    How to add CPU, GPU, RAM widgets on Windows 11
    2 days ago
    How to create virtual drive (VHD, VHDX, Dev Drive) on Windows 11
    5 days ago
    How to enable Taskbar End Task option to close apps on Windows 11
    5 days ago
    How to check USB4 devices specs from Settings on Windows 11
    5 days ago
  • Glossary
  • My Bookmarks
Reading: Meet the iPhone malware that tracks your every move
Share
Notification Show More
Aa
Aa
10alert.com10alert.com
  • Threats
  • Fix
  • How To
  • News
  • Glossary
  • My Bookmarks
  • Threats
    • WordPress ThreatsDanger
  • Fix
  • How To
  • News
  • Glossary
  • My Bookmarks
Follow US
AppsThreatsWordpress Threats

Meet the iPhone malware that tracks your every move

Vitus White
Last updated: 13 October
Vitus White 8 months ago
Share
6 Min Read

It’s a well-known fact that over 98% of smartphone malware targets Android. This is due to the fact that user can only download iOS apps from the human-curated App store, and Apple does a pretty impressive job preventing malicious software from entering its store. However, it’s focuses only on mass malware, which is intended to infect any user without exact targeting. The story is completely different when someone wants to spy on you personally. You don’t have to be a criminal, an influential businessman or event political activist to become a subject of such spying. Maybe you fall into the “suspicious” or “interesting” category by some other criteria, as we will see a little bit later. In this case, a spying agency can infect your iPhone too.

Contents
iOS malwareVictimsProtection

In some countries, different government agencies are able to penetrate a suspect’s computer or a smartphone for “monitoring” purposes or evidence collection. To do this, agencies typically use so-called “legal” spyware. There are international companies officially developing and selling this kind of software. One of such companies is the Italian firm HackingTeam, which develops Remote Control System (RCS) software aka Galileo. Kaspersky Lab monitors RCS infrastructure for some time and encountered Windows malware “implants” from RCS before. There were multiple hints in malicious files indicating the existence of smartphone “implants”, but we did not have a chance to obtain them in the wild. During recent Kaspersky Lab research in partnership with Morgan Marquis-Boire from Citizen Lab, new variants of malware were discovered. These new samples are actually smartphone Trojans that work on both Android and iOS.

#Kaspersky Lab discovered #spying #Trojans that work on both #Android and #iOS

Tweet

iOS malware

The major new discovery during the current RCS research is the method used to infect iPhones. First, a victim’s computer is infected with Windows or MacOS malware. The infection vectors are different each time and may include social engineering tricks, exploits and spear phishing. The malware silently sits in the computer, performs typical spying activities like keylogging and waits until the victim connects his/her smartphone to perform an iTunes sync. If a spyware operator approves a smartphone infection, a Trojan tries to silently jailbreak a connected iPhone, followed by the installation of the mobile spying component. At this step, iPhone reboots and it’s actually the only noticeable sign of anything going wrong. A malware is quite smart and uses multiple logical triggers to spy discretely, for example, works only when attacker-specified Wi-Fi network is nearby or a wall charger is connected. It does not cause major battery drain, which may alert a victim.

The iOS Trojan is smart and spies discretely, i.e. does not drain a battery.

The RCS mobile Trojans are capable of performing all kinds of spying you can expect from such a tool, including location reporting, taking photos, spying on SMS, WhatsApp and other messengers, stealing contacts and so on.

Of course, there are limitations that may or may not allow attackers to hack a specific iPhone. First, it must run a “jailbreak-able” iOS version. For example, there is no known jailbreak for the most recent version, but previous ones are vulnerable. Second, an iPhone should be passcode-unlocked during the jailbreak. However, both conditions are not rare and spyware operators no doubt have many iOS-running trophies.

Victims

The list of victims indicated in the new research, conducted by Kaspersky Lab and Citizen Lab, includes activists and human rights advocates, as well as journalists and politicians. However, the interest in some victims is unclear. One notable example is a high school history teacher in the UK.

Showcase geography of the hacking team #klcsd Sergey Golovanov and Morgan Marquis-Boire

A photo posted by Kaspersky Lab (@kasperskylab) on Jun 24, 2014 at 4:54am PDT

The majority of the discovered RCS control servers were based in the United States, Kazakhstan, Ecuador, the UK and Canada. Sergey Golovanov, Principal Security Researcher at Kaspersky Lab, said: “The presence of these servers in a given country doesn’t mean to say they are used by that particular country’s law enforcement agencies. However, it makes sense for the users of RCS to deploy servers in locations they control – where there are minimal risks of cross-border legal issues or server seizures.”

Protection

To avoid infection risks, Kaspersky Lab’s experts recommend that you, first of all, don’t jailbreak your iPhone, and secondly constantly update the iOS on your device to the latest version. In addition, running a robust security software on your computer greatly reduces the risk of getting infected.


Source: kaspersky.com

Translate this article

TAGGED: Apple, DoS, MacOS, Malware, Phishing, PoC, Security, Social engineering, Software, Split tunneling, SQL injection, Threats, WhatsApp, Windows
Vitus White October 13, 2022 October 7, 2022
Share this Article
Facebook Twitter Reddit Telegram Email Copy Link Print

STAY CONECTED

24.8k Followers Like
253.9k Followers Follow
33.7k Subscribers Subscribe
124.8k Members Follow

LAST 10 ALERT

Dynamic data collection with Zaraz Worker Variables
Dynamic data collection with Zaraz Worker Variables
Apps 1 day ago
How to add CPU, GPU, RAM widgets on Windows 11
News 2 days ago
Reduce latency and increase cache hits with Regional Tiered Cache
Reduce latency and increase cache hits with Regional Tiered Cache
Apps 2 days ago
Cloudflare is deprecating Railgun
Cloudflare is deprecating Railgun
Apps 2 days ago
Triangulation: Trojan for iOS | Kaspersky official blog
Threats 2 days ago

Recent Posts

  • Dynamic data collection with Zaraz Worker Variables
  • How to add CPU, GPU, RAM widgets on Windows 11
  • Reduce latency and increase cache hits with Regional Tiered Cache
  • Cloudflare is deprecating Railgun
  • Triangulation: Trojan for iOS | Kaspersky official blog

You Might Also Like

Dynamic data collection with Zaraz Worker Variables
Apps

Dynamic data collection with Zaraz Worker Variables

1 day ago
News

How to add CPU, GPU, RAM widgets on Windows 11

2 days ago
Reduce latency and increase cache hits with Regional Tiered Cache
Apps

Reduce latency and increase cache hits with Regional Tiered Cache

2 days ago
Cloudflare is deprecating Railgun
Apps

Cloudflare is deprecating Railgun

2 days ago
Show More

Related stories

How to Use Cloudflare to Secure Your WordPress Site
How To Starting Chrome from the command line
How to fix error 0x80070057 in Chrome?
Windows 10 How To Disable Slide to Shutdown
Windows search not working (FIX)
How to watch movies and TV series for free on Kinopoisk?
Previous Next

10 New Stories

Wordfence Intelligence Weekly WordPress Vulnerability Report (May 22, 2023 to May 28, 2023)
Safeguards against firmware signed with stolen MSI keys
WPDeveloper Addresses Privilege Escalation Vulnerability in ReviewX WordPress Plugin
How to create virtual drive (VHD, VHDX, Dev Drive) on Windows 11
How to enable Taskbar End Task option to close apps on Windows 11
How to check USB4 devices specs from Settings on Windows 11
Previous Next
Hot News
Dynamic data collection with Zaraz Worker Variables
How to add CPU, GPU, RAM widgets on Windows 11
Reduce latency and increase cache hits with Regional Tiered Cache
Cloudflare is deprecating Railgun
Triangulation: Trojan for iOS | Kaspersky official blog
10alert.com10alert.com
Follow US

© 10 Alert Network. All Rights Reserved.

  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact
  • Customize Interests
  • My Bookmarks
  • Glossary
Go to mobile version
adbanner
AdBlock Detected
Our site is an advertising supported site. Please whitelist to support our site.
Okay, I'll Whitelist
Welcome Back!

Sign in to your account

Lost your password?