If you’ve been keeping up with the world of espionage lately, then Pegasus spyware might make you realize something. Israeli cyber weapons company NSO Group develops the software, and it can read a target’s text messages, listen to calls, track their location and more. The software made headlines after several nations were found to have used it to spy on journalists, activists and other persons of interest.
Apple’s recent iOS 16.6 mobile operating system apparently features zero-day and zero-click, meaning no user interaction is required to use it, an exploit dubbed “Blastpass” by its discoverer, Citizen Lab The exploit apparently involves PassKit and Apple’s SDK, which allow developers to integrate Apple Pay into their apps and some malicious images sent via iMessage to trigger the exploit. Citizen Lab successfully installed Pegasus on a targeted device using that exploit and immediately reported it to Apple.
A fix has now been rolled out in iOS 16.6.1 and all users are advised to get the update as soon as possible. As it turns out, the exploit is quite serious and far-reaching as Citizen Lab even advised users concerned about their privacy to enable iOS Lockdown mode, a recent iOS feature that severely limits the functions of Apple devices.
In other recent news, China just banned the use of iPhones by government officials. We’re not speculating that it’s somehow related to the exploit, but Apple is definitely having a tough time with its iPhones.
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