State-backed attackers and commercial surveillance vendors repeatedly use the same exploits


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.

Read more…
Source: Google’s Threat Analysis Group


Sign up for our Newsletter


Related:

  • New Apache Struts RCE Flaw Lets Hackers Take Over Web Servers

    August 22, 2018

    Semmle security researcher Man Yue Mo has disclosed a critical remote code execution vulnerability in the popular Apache Struts web application framework that could allow remote attackers to run malicious code on the affected servers. Apache Struts is an open source framework for developing web applications in the Java programming language and is widely used by enterprises globally, ...

  • Retro tech leaves NHS open to cyber-attacks, say researchers

    August 20, 2018

    Hackers could gain access to NHS networks by exploiting vulnerabilities in fax machines, security researchers have suggested. Staff at Check Point Software discovered exploits in widely-used fax machines that enable hackers to spread malware through a malicious image file. Malware can be coded into the image file which, when decoded by the fax machine and uploaded to its ...

  • Cyber security threat to Britain’s oil and gas sites as attack could cause ‘unprecedented damage’

    August 17, 2018

    Brian Lord OBE says a successful attack on its infrastructure could cause “unprecedented damage” and “unrest across the world”. With a complex ecosystem of computation, networking, and physical operational processes spread around the world the industry has a large attack surface with many attack vectors. A typical large oil and gas company uses half a million processors ...

  • FBI Warns Of ATM Hacking Campaign

    August 16, 2018

    The FBI has warned banks that cybercriminals are preparing to carry out a “highly choreographed, global fraud scheme known as an ‘ATM cash-out’.” The threat, reported by Krebs On Security cybersecurity blog, will apparently see criminals hacking a bank or payment card processor, and using cloned cards at ATMs around the world to fraudulently withdraw “millions of ...

  • Researchers Disclose New Foreshadow (L1TF) Vulnerabilities Affecting Intel CPUs

    August 14, 2018

    Academics and private sector researchers have revealed details today about three new vulnerabilities affecting Intel CPUs. All three are Spectre-class attacks that take advantage of a CPU design feature named speculative execution —a feature found in all modern CPUs that has the role of improving performance by computing operations in advance and later discarding unneeded data. These flaws target ...

  • Postmortem of a Compromised MikroTik Router

    August 14, 2018

    Cryptocurrency coinminers are the new ransomware and malicious actors have already pounced on the opportunity to make their fortune. Symantec has been tracking a large-scale coin-mining campaign which, as per Shodan, has currently infected about 157,000 MikroTik routers. Researchers discovered this coin-mining campaign in early August 2018. The campaign was initially concentrated in Brazil; however, it soon began ...