On April 29, 2025, a select group of iOS users were notified by Apple that they were targeted with advanced spyware. Among the group were two journalists who consented to the technical analysis of their cases. In this report, we discuss key findings from our forensic analyses of their devices.
Throughout late 2024 and early 2025, iVerify detected anomalous activity on iPhones belonging to individuals affiliated with political campaigns, media organizations, A.I. companies and governments operating in the United States and European Union.
Specifically, we detected exceedingly rare crashes typically associated with sophisticated zero-click attacks via iMessage – an exploitation technique previously unobserved in any systematic way in the United States. Subsequent forensic examination of several of these devices ultimately revealed a previously unknown vulnerability in the “imagent” process which, owing to its relative position in the operating system and functionality, would provide attackers a primitive for further exploitation. This vulnerability was patched by Apple in iOS 18.3. We’ve dubbed this vulnerability NICKNAME.
In the course of our investigation, we discovered evidence suggesting – but not definitively proving – this vulnerability was exploited in targeted attacks as recently as March of this year. Specifically, we learned that Apple sent Threat Notifications to at least one device belonging to a senior government official in the EU on which we saw the highly anomalous crashes. Likewise, one device demonstrated behavior frequently associated with successful exploitation, specifically the creation and deletion of iMessage attachments in bulk within a matter of seconds on several occasions after an anomalous crash. We only observed these crashes on devices belonging to extremely high value targets. And these crashes constituted only .0001% of the crash log telemetry taken from a sample of 50,000 iPhones.
Apple rolls out iOS and macOS platform updates to fix serious security bugs that could be triggered simply by opening an image or video file.
Apple on Monday pushed out patches for security vulnerabilities across the macOS, iPhone and iPad software stack, warning that code-execution bugs that could be triggered simply by opening a rigged image, video or website.
The new iOS 18.5 update, rolled out alongside patches for iPadOS, covers critical bugs in AppleJPEG and CoreMedia with a major warning from Cupertino that attackers could craft malicious media files to run arbitrary code with the privileges of the targeted app.
The company also documented serious file-parsing vulnerabilities patched in CoreAudio, CoreGraphics, and ImageIO, each capable of crashing apps or leaking data if booby-trapped content is opened.
The iOS 18.5 update also provides cover for at least 9 documented WebKit flaws, some serious enough to lead to exploits that allow a hostile website to execute code or crash the Safari browser engine.
The company also patched a serious ‘mute-button’ flaw in FaceTime that exposes the audio conversation even after muting the microphone.
Beneath the interface, Apple said iOS 18.5 hardens the kernel against two memory-corruption issues and cleans up a libexpat flaw (CVE-2024-8176) that affects a broad range of software projects.
Other notable fixes include an issue in Baseband (CVE-2025-31214) that allows attackers in a privileged network position to intercept traffic on the new iPhone 16e line; a privilege escalation bug in mDNSResponder (CVE-2025-31222); an issue in Notes that expose data from a locked iPhone screen; and security gaps in FrontBoard, iCloud Document Sharing, and Mail Addressing.
A vulnerability in the Out-of-Band Access Point (AP) Image Download feature of Cisco IOS XE Software for Wireless LAN Controllers (WLCs) could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to upload arbitrary files to an affected system.
This vulnerability is due to the presence of a hard-coded JSON Web Token (JWT) on an affected system. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending crafted HTTPS requests to the AP image download interface. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to upload files, perform path traversal, and execute arbitrary commands with root privileges.
Note: For exploitation to be successful, the Out-of-Band AP Image Download feature must be enabled on the device. It is not enabled by default.
Cisco has released software updates that address this vulnerability. There are no workarounds that address this vulnerability.
This advisory is available at the following link:
https://sec.cloudapps.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-wlc-file-uplpd-rHZG9UfC
This advisory is part of the May 2025 release of the Cisco IOS and IOS XE Software Security Advisory Bundled Publication. For a complete list of the advisories and links to them, see Cisco Event Response: May 2025 Semiannual Cisco IOS and IOS XE Software Security Advisory Bundled Publication.
A hacker breached the GitLab repositories of multinational car-rental company Europcar Mobility Group and stole source code for Android and iOS applications, as well as some personal information belonging to up to 200,000 users.
#Android #Breach #Code #Computer #Data #Europcar #GitLab #InfoSec #Security #Source #iOS
Millions of Americans have downloaded apps that secretly route their internet traffic through Chinese companies, according to an investigation by the Tech Transparency Project (TTP), including several that were recently owned by a sanctioned firm with links to China’s military.
TTP’s investigation found that one in five of the top 100 free virtual private networks in the U.S. App Store during 2024 were surreptitiously owned by Chinese companies, which are obliged to hand over their users’ browsing data to the Chinese government under the country’s national security laws. Several of the apps traced back to Qihoo 360, a firm declared by the Defense Department to be a “Chinese Military Company." Qihoo did not respond to questions about its app-related holdings.
Apple has delivered a big batch of OS updates, some of which belatedly patch older versions of its operating systems to address exploited-in-the-wild flaws the iGiant earlier fixed in more recent releases.
In iOS 18, Apple spun off its Keychain password management tool—previously only tucked away in Settings—into a standalone app called...
Kaspersky experts discover iOS and Android apps infected with the SparkCat crypto stealer in Google Play and the App Store. It steals crypto wallet data using an OCR model.
Apple has released security updates to fix this year's first zero-day vulnerability, tagged as actively exploited in attacks targeting iPhone users.
The documents provide never-been-seen insight into the current cat-and-mouse game between forensics companies and phone manufacturers Apple and Google.
Apple has issued patches for several of its operating systems. The ones for iOS and iPadOS deserve your immediate attention.
ThreatFabric’s latest insights on LightSpy malware, targeting both iOS and macOS. Learn about the evolving tactics, new destructive features, and the importance of keeping devices updated to defend against these advanced cyber threats.
Apple on Monday announced a hefty round of security updates that address dozens of vulnerabilities impacting both newer and older iOS and macOS devices.
iOS 17.6 and iPadOS 17.6 were released for the latest generation iPhone and iPad devices with fixes for 35 security defects that could lead to authentication and policy bypasses, unexpected application termination or system shutdown, information disclosure, denial-of-service (DoS), and memory leaks.
Apps that used code libraries hosted on CocoaPods were vulnerable for about 10 years.
Apple's implementation of installing marketplace apps from Safari is heavily flawed and can allow a malicious marketplace to track users across websites
We analyzed third-party keyboard apps Tencent QQ, Baidu, and iFlytek, on the Android, iOS, and Windows platforms. Along with Tencent Sogou, they comprise over 95% of the market share for third-party keyboard apps in China. This is an FAQ for the full report titled "The not-so-silent type: Vulnerabilities across keyboard apps reveal keystrokes to network eavesdroppers."
In a report going over the state of malware in 2024, device management firm Jamf says that 9% of mobile users were caught by phishing, while 20% of companies were at risk because of bad smartphone configurations.
Group-IB, a leading creator of cybersecurity technologies to investigate, prevent, and fight digital crime, has uncovered a new iOS Trojan designed to steal users’ facial recognition data, identity documents, and intercept SMS. The Trojan, dubbed GoldPickaxe.iOS by Group-IB’s Threat Intelligence unit, has been attributed to a Chinese-speaking threat actor codenamed GoldFactory, responsible for developing a suite of highly sophisticated banking Trojans that also includes the earlier discovered GoldDigger and newly identified GoldDiggerPlus, GoldKefu, and GoldPickaxe for Android. To exploit the stolen biometric data, the threat actor utilizes AI face-swapping services to create deepfakes by replacing their faces with those of the victims. This method could be used by cybercriminals to gain unauthorized access to the victim’s banking account – a new fraud technique, previously unseen by Group-IB researchers. The GoldFactory Trojans target the Asia-Pacific region, specifically — Thailand and Vietnam impersonating local banks and government organizations.
Group-IB’s discovery also marks a rare instance of malware targeting Apple’s mobile operating system. The detailed technical description of the Trojans, analysis of their technical capabilities, and the list of relevant indicators of compromise can be found in Group-IB’s latest blog post.
