Pegasus Infiltrated: Is Your iPhone Becoming Less Secure?

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With the revelations of the Project Pegasus investigation came the realization that for all of Apple’s claims regarding the security of its phones, the iPhone is vulnerable to undetected infiltration.

How has Apple been targeted?

Forensic evidence suggests that the Pegasus spyware developed by the Israels NSO Group used zero-click attacks performed via the Apple iMessage and FaceTime communication apps, Apple Music streaming service, and Safari web pages to infiltrate journalists and activists’ iPhones.

Once inside, Pegasus gains full access to the data, location, text messages and contact lists of the target iPhone or Android smartphone, along with archived audio, video and photo files. In fact, it gains, as one security expert said, often more control than the owner of the phone.

In recent years, notable people and people who care about the safety of their devices have switched to iPhones, especially since BlackBerry and Windows phones have faded into oblivion. So a targeted attack on phones used by politicians, business owners and journalists will have a higher percentage of Apple devices.

How did Apple respond?

In a statement condemning the attacks, Ivan Krstic, chief of Apple Security Engineering and Architecture, said: Attacks such as those described are highly sophisticated, cost millions of dollars to develop, often have a short duration, and are used to target individuals. specific. While this means they pose no threat to the vast majority of our users, we continue to work tirelessly to defend all of our customers and are constantly adding new protections for their devices and data.

How vulnerable (or not) are iPhones?

Independent security researcher Anand Venkatanarayanan said that despite Apple’s claims of security improvements, many minor vulnerabilities exist. This, he said, makes it easier for NSO to procure or develop exploits on their own, which they can sell for millions of dollars.

NSO Group is a military-grade weapons manufacturer, and just like any weapons manufacturer, they must ensure their customers that whatever they supply will work everywhere. And Android and iOS are the only two big markets out there, Venkatanarayanan said.

According to Venkatanarayanan, multiple zero-day vulnerabilities have been found on iMessage over the past year and a half. With iOS 14, Apple tried to secure iMessage with BlastDoor, a sandbox technology designed to protect only the messaging system. It processes all incoming iMessage traffic and transmits only secure data to the operating system.

But as Amnesty International’s forensic analysis of iPhones infected with Pegasus spyware showed, NSO Group’s zero-click attacks managed to circumvent this problem. Zero-click attacks require no interaction from the target and, according to Amnesty, were observed on a fully patched iPhone 12 running iOS 14.6 through July 2021.

No device can claim to be 100% secure, said Nikhil S Mahadeshwar, an ethical hacker and cybersecurity expert. Each security has its backdoor and even though the backdoor is private, there is a new methodology and new technology to break that backdoor. Why, for example, Apple has a bug reward program when it claims its iPhones are not hackable, Mahadeshwar asked.

There are two main ways through which the iPhone can be hacked via jailbreaking or via unauthorized third-party iCloud backup, through which iMessage users, WhatsApp chats and contacts can be reached, he said.

Apple sources said the company views security as a process whereby it quickly fixes critical vulnerabilities and delivers security updates to users even on older devices. Sources said Apple pioneered new protections such as Pointer Authentication Codes and BlastDoor and was working on improving these features to respond to new threats.

How does Apple compare to Android?

Both operating systems are equally vulnerable or secure. However, only iPhones keep data logs that allow you to perform the necessary analysis to detect possible spyware infections. It is not easy to detect Pegasus on Android, as the logs tend to be deleted after about a year.

Pranesh Prakash, Affiliated Fellow at the Information Society Project at Yale Law School, said that both iOS and Android are vulnerable to various security exploits and have robust programs to counter this type of security vulnerability. Spyware like Pegasus must continue to evolve towards different forms of security measures adopted by Android and iOS, he said.

Why are these attacks becoming frequent? (Previous surveillance cases involving Pegasus were reported a couple of years ago.)

Venkatanarayanan said the nature of the smartphone market, dominated by two operating systems iOS and Android, makes it easier for companies like NSO Group to carry out attacks. If you find a vulnerability, you can hit a large chunk of users. The scale of this monopoly or duopoly is such that there is not much variability. The variability makes cybercrime operations more difficult, he said.

What can Apple do now?

Apple’s reputation as a secure device has been dented by the Pegasus revelations. Apple has since highlighted how its security team has grown about fourfold in the past five years and now includes many high-level experts, from threat intelligence specialists and offensive security researchers to platform defense engineers and all. rest.

Tim Bajarin, technology analyst and president of Creative Strategies, said in an email:… Apple needs to address this ASAP and serve as an example to fix this exploit of their operating system. Apple has resisted other security breaches in the past, and if they address them quickly and make sure this threat is eliminated, they will regain customer opinions on Apple’s security focus.

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