Google’s Threat Analysis Group (TAG) observed multiple in-the-wild exploit campaigns, between November 2023 and July 2024, delivered from a watering hole attack on Mongolian government websites.
The campaigns first delivered an iOS WebKit exploit affecting iOS versions older than 16.6.1 and then later, a Chrome exploit chain against Android users running versions from m121 to m123. These campaigns delivered n-day exploits for which patches were available, but would still be effective against unpatched devices. TAG researchers assess with moderate confidence the campaigns are linked to the Russian government-backed actor APT29. In each iteration of the watering hole campaigns, the attackers used exploits that were identical or strikingly similar to exploits previously used by commercial surveillance vendors (CSVs) Intellexa and NSO Group.
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Source: Google’s Threat Analysis Group
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