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The GSM Association (GSMA) has formally announced support for end-to-end encryption (E2EE) for securing messages sent via the Rich Communications Services (RCS) protocol, bringing much-needed security protections to cross-platform messages shared between Android and iOS platforms. To that end, the new GSMA specifications for RCS include E2EE based on the Messaging Layer Security (MLS) protocol via what's called the RCS Universal Profile 3.0 . "The new specifications define how to apply MLS within the context of RCS," Tom Van Pelt, technical director of GSMA, said . "These procedures ensure that messages and other content such as files remain confidential and secure as they travel between clients." This also means that RCS will be the first "large-scale messaging service" to have support for interoperable E2EE between different client implementations from different providers in the near future. It's worth noting that Google's own implemen...

Apple on Tuesday released a security update to address a zero-day flaw that it said has been exploited in "extremely sophisticated" attacks. The vulnerability has been assigned the CVE identifier CVE-2025-24201 and is rooted in the WebKit web browser engine component. It has been described as an out-of-bounds write issue that could allow an attacker to craft malicious web content such that it can break out of the Web Content sandbox. Apple said it resolved the issue with improved checks to prevent unauthorized actions. It also noted that it's a supplementary fix for an attack that was blocked in iOS 17.2 . Furthermore, it acknowledged that the vulnerability "may have been exploited in an extremely sophisticated attack against specific targeted individuals on versions of iOS before iOS 17.2." However, the advisory does not mention if Apple's own security team discovered the flaw or if it was reported by an external researcher.. It also does not mentio...

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Apple on Monday released out-of-band security updates to address a security flaw in iOS and iPadOS that it said has been exploited in the wild. Assigned the CVE identifier CVE-2025-24200 (CVSS score: 4.6), the vulnerability has been described as an authorization issue that could make it possible for a malicious actor to disable USB Restricted Mode on a locked device as part of a cyber physical attack. This suggests that the attackers require physical access to the device in order to exploit the flaw. Introduced in iOS 11.4.1, USB Restricted Mode prevents an Apple iOS and iPadOS device from communicating with a connected accessory if it has not been unlocked and connected to an accessory within the past hour. The feature is seen as an attempt to prevent digital forensics tools like Cellebrite or GrayKey , which are mainly used by law enforcement agencies, from gaining unauthorized entry to a confiscated device and extracting sensitive data. In line with advisories of this k...

A new malware campaign dubbed SparkCat has leveraged a suit of bogus apps on both Apple's and Google's respective app stores to steal victims' mnemonic phrases associated with cryptocurrency wallets.  The attacks leverage an optical character recognition (OCR) model to exfiltrate select images containing wallet recovery phrases from photo libraries to a command-and-control (C2) server, Kaspersky researchers Dmitry Kalinin and Sergey Puzan said in a technical report. The moniker is a reference to an embedded software development kit (SDK) that employs a Java component called Spark that masquerades as an analytics module. It's currently not known whether the infection was a result of a supply chain attack or if it was intentionally introduced by the developers. While this is not the first time Android malware with OCR capabilities has been detected in the wild, it's one of the first instances where such a stealer has been found in Apple's App Store. The inf...

Apple has released software updates to address several security flaws across its portfolio, including a zero-day vulnerability that it said has been exploited in the wild. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2025-24085 (CVSS scores: 7.3/7.8), has been described as a use-after-free bug in the Core Media component that could permit a malicious application already installed on a device to elevate privileges. "Apple is aware of a report that this issue may have been actively exploited against versions of iOS before iOS 17.2," the company said in a terse advisory. The issue has been addressed with improved memory management in the following devices and operating system versions - iOS 18.3 and iPadOS 18.3 - iPhone XS and later, iPad Pro 13-inch, iPad Pro 12.9-inch 3rd generation and later, iPad Pro 11-inch 1st generation and later, iPad Air 3rd generation and later, iPad 7th generation and later, and iPad mini 5th generation and later macOS Sequoia 15.3 - Macs running mac...

Germany's Federal Office of Information Security (BSI) has announced that it has disrupted a malware operation called BADBOX that came preloaded on at least 30,000 internet-connected devices sold across the country. In a statement published earlier this week, authorities said they severed the communications between the devices and their command-and-control (C2) servers by sinkholing the domains in question. Impacted devices include digital picture frames, media players, and streamers, and likely phones and tablets. "What all of these devices have in common is that they have outdated Android versions and were delivered with pre-installed malware," the BSI said in a press release. BADBOX was first documented by HUMAN's Satori Threat Intelligence and Research team in October 2023, describing it as a "complex threat actor scheme" that involves deploying the Triada Android malware on low-cost, off-brand Android devices by exploiting weak supply chain links...

Details have emerged about a now-patched security vulnerability in Apple's iOS and macOS that, if successfully exploited, could sidestep the Transparency, Consent, and Control ( TCC ) framework and result in unauthorized access to sensitive information. The flaw, tracked as CVE-2024-44131 (CVSS score: 5.3), resides in the FileProvider component, per Apple, and has been addressed with improved validation of symbolic links (symlinks) in iOS 18, iPadOS 18 , and macOS Sequoia 15 . Jamf Threat Labs, which discovered and reported the flaw, said the TCC bypass could be exploited by a rogue installed on the system to grab sensitive data without users' knowledge. TCC serves as a critical security protection in Apple devices, giving end users a way to allow or deny a request from apps to access sensitive data, such as GPS location, contacts, and photos, among others. "This TCC bypass allows unauthorized access to files and folders, Health data, the microphone or camera, and m...

Apple has released security updates for iOS, iPadOS, macOS, visionOS, and its Safari web browser to address two zero-day flaws that have come under active exploitation in the wild. The flaws are listed below - CVE-2024-44308 (CVSS score: 8.8)  - A vulnerability in JavaScriptCore that could lead to arbitrary code execution when processing malicious web content CVE-2024-44309 (CVSS score: 6.1)  - A cookie management vulnerability in WebKit that could lead to a cross-site scripting (XSS) attack when processing malicious web content The iPhone maker said it addressed CVE-2024-44308 and CVE-2024-44309 with improved checks and improved state management, respectively.  Not much is known about the exact nature of the exploitation, but Apple has acknowledged that the pair of vulnerabilities "may have been actively exploited on Intel-based Mac systems." Clément Lecigne and Benoît Sevens of Google's Threat Analysis Group (TAG) have been credited with discovering and report...

Apple has released iOS and iPadOS updates to address two security issues, one of which could have allowed a user's passwords to be read out aloud by its VoiceOver assistive technology. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2024-44204, has been described as a logic problem in the new Passwords app impacting a slew of iPhones and iPads. Security researcher Bistrit Daha has been credited with discovering and reporting the flaw. "A user's saved passwords may be read aloud by VoiceOver," Apple said in an advisory released this week, adding it was resolved with improved validation.  The shortcoming impacts the following devices - iPhone XS and later iPad Pro 13-inch iPad Pro 12.9-inch 3rd generation and later iPad Pro 11-inch 1st generation and later iPad Air 3rd generation and later iPad 7th generation and later, and iPad mini 5th generation and later Also patched by Apple is a security vulnerability (CVE-2024-44207) specific to the newly launched iPhone 16 mo...

Microsoft on Thursday disclosed four medium-severity security flaws in the open-source OpenVPN software that could be chained to achieve remote code execution (RCE) and local privilege escalation (LPE). "This attack chain could enable attackers to gain full control over targeted endpoints, potentially resulting in data breaches, system compromise, and unauthorized access to sensitive information," Vladimir Tokarev of the Microsoft Threat Intelligence Community said . That said, the exploit, presented by Black Hat USA 2024, requires user authentication and an advanced understanding of OpenVPN's inner workings. The flaws affect all versions of OpenVPN prior to version 2.6.10 and 2.5.10. The list of vulnerabilities is as follows - CVE-2024-27459 - A stack overflow vulnerability leading to a Denial-of-service (DoS) and LPE in Windows CVE-2024-24974 - Unauthorized access to the "\\openvpn\\service" named pipe in Windows, allowing an attacker to remotely inte...

A trio of security flaws has been uncovered in the CocoaPods dependency manager for Swift and Objective-C Cocoa projects that could be exploited to stage software supply chain attacks, putting downstream customers at severe risks. The vulnerabilities allow "any malicious actor to claim ownership over thousands of unclaimed pods and insert malicious code into many of the most popular iOS and macOS applications," E.V.A Information Security researchers Reef Spektor and Eran Vaknin said in a report published today. The Israeli application security firm said the three issues have since been patched by CocoaPods as of October 2023. The project maintainers also reset all user sessions at the time in response to the disclosures. One of the vulnerabilities is CVE-2024-38368 (CVSS score: 9.3), which makes it possible for an attacker to abuse the " Claim Your Pods " process and take control of a package, effectively allowing them to tamper with the source code and int...

Apple and Google on Monday officially announced the rollout of a new feature that notifies users across both iOS and Android if a Bluetooth tracking device is being used to stealthily keep tabs on them without their knowledge or consent. "This will help mitigate the misuse of devices designed to help keep track of belongings," the companies said in a joint statement, adding it aims to address "potential risks to user privacy and safety." The proposal for a cross-platform solution was  originally unveiled  exactly a year ago by the two tech giants. The capability – dubbed " Detecting Unwanted Location Trackers " (DULT) – is available in Android devices running versions 6.0 and later, and iOS devices with iOS 17.5, which was officially shipped yesterday. As part of the industry specification, Android users will  receive  a "Tracker traveling with you" alert if an unidentified Bluetooth tracking device is detected as moving along with them over...

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) on Wednesday  added  a high-severity flaw impacting iOS, iPadOS, macOS, tvOS, and watchOS to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities ( KEV ) catalog, based on evidence of active exploitation. The vulnerability, tracked as  CVE-2022-48618  (CVSS score: 7.8), concerns a bug in the kernel component. "An attacker with arbitrary read and write capability may be able to bypass  Pointer Authentication ," Apple said in an advisory, adding the issue "may have been exploited against versions of iOS released before iOS 15.7.1." The iPhone maker said the problem was addressed with improved checks. It's currently not known how the vulnerability is being weaponized in real-world attacks. Interestingly, patches for the flaw were released on December 13, 2022, with the release of  iOS 16.2, iPadOS 16.2 ,  macOS Ventura 13.1 ,  tvOS 16.2 , and  watchOS 9.2 , although it was only publicly discl...

Apple on Monday released  security patches  for iOS, iPadOS, macOS, tvOS, watchOS, and Safari web browser to address multiple security flaws, in addition to backporting fixes for two recently disclosed zero-days to older devices. This includes updates for  12 security vulnerabilities  in iOS and iPadOS spanning AVEVideoEncoder, ExtensionKit, Find My, ImageIO, Kernel, Safari Private Browsing, and WebKit.  macOS Sonoma 14.2 , for its part, resolves 39 shortcomings, counting six bugs impacting the  ncurses library . Notable among the flaws is  CVE-2023-45866 , a critical security issue in Bluetooth that could allow an attacker in a privileged network position to inject keystrokes by spoofing a keyboard. The vulnerability was disclosed by SkySafe security researcher Marc Newlin last week. It has been remediated in iOS 17.2, iPadOS 17.2, and macOS Sonoma 14.2 with improved checks, the iPhone maker said. Also released by Apple is  Safari 17.2 , co...

A collection of security flaws in the firmware implementation of 5G mobile network modems from major chipset vendors such as MediaTek and Qualcomm impact USB and IoT modems as well as hundreds of smartphone models running Android and iOS. Of the 14 flaws – collectively called  5Ghoul  (a combination of "5G" and "Ghoul") – 10 affect 5G modems from the two companies, out of which three have been classified as high-severity vulnerabilities. "5Ghoul vulnerabilities may be exploited to continuously launch attacks to drop the connections, freeze the connection that involve manual reboot or downgrade the 5G connectivity to 4G," the researchers  said  in a study published today. As many as 714 smartphones from 24 brands are impacted, including those from Vivo, Xiaomi, OPPO, Samsung, Honor, Motorola, realme, OnePlus, Huawei, ZTE, Asus, Sony, Meizu, Nokia, Apple, and Google. The vulnerabilities were disclosed by a team of researchers from the ASSET (Automated ...

A critical Bluetooth security flaw could be exploited by threat actors to take control of Android, Linux, macOS and iOS devices. Tracked as  CVE-2023-45866 , the issue relates to a case of authentication bypass that enables attackers to connect to susceptible devices and inject keystrokes to achieve code execution as the victim. "Multiple Bluetooth stacks have authentication bypass vulnerabilities that permit an attacker to connect to a discoverable host without user confirmation and inject keystrokes," said security researcher  Marc Newlin , who  disclosed  the flaws to the software vendors in August 2023. Specifically, the attack deceives the target device into thinking that it's connected to a Bluetooth keyboard by taking advantage of an "unauthenticated pairing mechanism" that's defined in the Bluetooth specification. Successful exploitation of the flaw could permit an adversary in close physical proximity to connect to a vulnerable device and trans...

New findings have identified connections between an Android spyware called DragonEgg and another sophisticated modular iOS surveillanceware tool named LightSpy . DragonEgg , alongside WyrmSpy (aka AndroidControl), was  first disclosed  by Lookout in July 2023 as a strain of malware capable of gathering sensitive data from Android devices. It was attributed to the Chinese nation-state group APT41. On the other hand, details about LightSpy came to light in March 2020 as part of a campaign dubbed  Operation Poisoned News  in which Apple iPhone users in Hong Kong were targeted with watering hole attacks to install the spyware. Now, according to Dutch mobile security firm ThreatFabric, DragonEgg attack chains involve the use of a trojanized Telegram app that's designed to download a second-stage payload (smallmload.jar), which, in turn, is configured to download a third component codenamed Core. Further analysis of the artifacts has revealed that the Android varian...

Apple has released yet another round of security patches to address three actively exploited zero-day flaws impacting iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, and Safari, taking the total tally of zero-day bugs discovered in its software this year to 16. The list of security vulnerabilities is as follows - CVE-2023-41991  - A certificate validation issue in the Security framework that could allow a malicious app to bypass signature validation. CVE-2023-41992  - A security flaw in Kernel that could allow a local attacker to elevate their privileges. CVE-2023-41993  - A WebKit flaw that could result in arbitrary code execution when processing specially crafted web content. Apple did not provide additional specifics barring an acknowledgement that the "issue may have been actively exploited against versions of iOS before iOS 16.7." The updates are available for the following devices and operating systems - iOS 16.7 and iPadOS 16.7  - iPhone 8 and later, iPad Pro (all mo...

Apple has  rolled out security updates  to iOS, iPadOS, macOS, tvOS, watchOS, and Safari to address several security vulnerabilities, including one actively exploited zero-day bug in the wild. Tracked as  CVE-2023-38606 , the shortcoming resides in the kernel and permits a malicious app to modify sensitive kernel state potentially. The company said it was addressed with improved state management. "Apple is aware of a report that this issue may have been actively exploited against versions of iOS released before iOS 15.7.1," the tech giant noted in its advisory. It's worth noting that CVE-2023-38606 is the fourth security vulnerability discovered in connection with  Operation Triangulation , a sophisticated mobile cyber espionage campaign targeting iOS devices since 2019 using a zero-click exploit chain. The other two zero-days,  CVE-2023-32434 and CVE-2023-32435 , were patched by Apple last month. A third shortcoming, CVE-2022-46690 , was addressed as part...

Apple has released  Rapid Security Response  updates for iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and Safari web browser to  address  a zero-day flaw that it said has been actively exploited in the wild. The WebKit bug, cataloged as  CVE-2023-37450 , could allow threat actors to achieve arbitrary code execution when processing specially crafted web content. The iPhone maker said it addressed the issue with improved checks. Credited with discovering and reporting the flaw is an anonymous researcher. As with most cases like this, there are scant details about the nature and the scale of the attacks and the identity of the threat actor behind them. But Apple noted in a terse advisory that it's "aware of a report that this issue may have been actively exploited." The updates, iOS 16.5.1 (a), iPadOS 16.5.1 (a), macOS Ventura 13.4.1 (a), and Safari 16.5.2, are available for devices running the following operating system versions: iOS 16.5.1 and iPadOS 16.5.1 macOS Ventura 13.4.1 ...