Researchers Uncover the ‘Most Sophisticated’ iPhone Exploit Ever

Maxwell Zeff
·1 min read
5
Photo: Hadrian (Shutterstock)
Photo: Hadrian (Shutterstock)

What happens when you hack a cybersecurity researcher? Kaspersky, a Moscow-based security firm, presented new details regarding zero-day vulnerabilities in Apple products on Wednesday. Kaspersky researchers are calling this the most sophisticated attack they’ve ever seen, exposing a previously unknown hardware feature. The attack has been front of mind for Kaspersky researchers because it’s been used against them for the last four years.

“This is no ordinary vulnerability,” said Kaspersky’s Boris Larin in a research paper Wednesday. “What we do know—and what this vulnerability demonstrates—is that advanced hardware-based protections are useless in the face of a sophisticated attacker as long as there are hardware features that can bypass those protections.”

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This specific hack against a small number of Kaspersky researchers came to light in June, but Russian cybersecurity officials quickly reported that thousands of government officials were also subject to similar attacks. The Russian government accused Apple and the US National Security Agency of colluding on this attack, but Kaspersky researchers, Apple, or the NSA have not confirmed these claims.

Though these bugs are now patched, researchers warn that zero-day vulnerabilities in the hardware of products, such as the one found here, suggest “a flawed approach.” Apple’s hardware systems seem to rely on “security through obscurity,” but as attackers get more advanced, Kaspersky alleges these systems will never truly be secure.

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