4 ms·

Long winded prose. Description of beards and an attempt to give the whole thing a 007 spin. Tldr; suspected government grade spyware originating from Israeli c

Long winded prose. Description of beards and an attempt to give the whole thing a 007 spin. Tldr; suspected government grade spyware originating from Israeli company NSO used to trap dissidents in Arab countries, targeting the iPhone (iOS 9) and utilising 2 or 3 zero days to jailbreak the device and snoop on everything it can. Would have been nice to read some technical details but there are none, and the piece goes on forever, needlessly.

LiveOverflow 10y ago
there you go: http://info.lookout.com/rs/051-ESQ-475/images/lookout-pegasus-technical-analysis.pdf http://info.lookout.com/rs/051-ESQ-475/images/lookout-pegasu...
- godmodus 10y ago
  Thank you! That's awesome
- dan1234 10y ago
  Maybe a mod could change the article link to this?
  - SuperPaintMan 10y ago
    Yeah, this wasn't written for the nerds. Original Link http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2016/11/how-bill-marczak-spyware-can-control-the-iphone http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2016/11/how-bill-marczak-spyw...
- tonyplee 10y ago
  If Android/IOS can be modified such that all apps are always place under docker style container/VM, would it help?
  - LiveOverflow 10y ago
    a kernel exploit doesn't help you much with a docker style container. Also docker is not a VM. And iOS/Android are already way better with sandboxing than our desktop environments.
    - tonyplee 10y ago
      For Kernel exploit, probably be true. If one becomes root in a docker container, the worst damage it can do is to that container's files. That is better the current "sandboxing" in iOS/Android setup, true?
- coldcode 10y ago
  Thats the article that should have been posted. Scary that this is an actual company that built this complex spyware. Given that their customers are nation-states you could consider these folks to be a terrorist organization. Also shows you how hard it is to build secure systems, you have to be perfect and the attacker only has to be persistent and succeed once.
digi_owl 10y ago
Its a social studies article masking as a tech article because iPhone. Its what you get when hipsters think they are hot shit with tech because they own something Apple made.
- acqq 10y ago
  As far as I understand the article was written by: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bryan_Burrough https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bryan_Burrough Yes, he is not a technology writer. But it's also obvious that the technology specialists weren't the target audience of this article. It is surely not easy read for us who expect to read the technical info, and who already know most of the context.
- godmodus 10y ago
  the problem is having it posted to Hackernews. who here reads vanity fair ? :P but let the normies have their day in the sun! not all hipsters are bad and i guess someone out there did enjoy the readup. i'd really wish these things weren't posted to HN though.
- AznHisoka 10y ago
  hipsters are like teenage sex. everyone talks about it and makes fun of it but it dorsnt really exist.
devoply 10y ago
Funny Israeli company helping Arab governments crack down on dissidents. Money. It brings the whole world together.

LiveOverflow 10y ago

there you go: http://info.lookout.com/rs/051-ESQ-475/images/lookout-pegasus-technical-analysis.pdf http://info.lookout.com/rs/051-ESQ-475/images/lookout-pegasu...

godmodus 10y ago
Thank you! That's awesome
dan1234 10y ago
Maybe a mod could change the article link to this?
- SuperPaintMan 10y ago
  Yeah, this wasn't written for the nerds. Original Link http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2016/11/how-bill-marczak-spyware-can-control-the-iphone http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2016/11/how-bill-marczak-spyw...
tonyplee 10y ago
If Android/IOS can be modified such that all apps are always place under docker style container/VM, would it help?
- LiveOverflow 10y ago
  a kernel exploit doesn't help you much with a docker style container. Also docker is not a VM. And iOS/Android are already way better with sandboxing than our desktop environments.
  - tonyplee 10y ago
    For Kernel exploit, probably be true. If one becomes root in a docker container, the worst damage it can do is to that container's files. That is better the current "sandboxing" in iOS/Android setup, true?
coldcode 10y ago
Thats the article that should have been posted. Scary that this is an actual company that built this complex spyware. Given that their customers are nation-states you could consider these folks to be a terrorist organization. Also shows you how hard it is to build secure systems, you have to be perfect and the attacker only has to be persistent and succeed once.

digi_owl 10y ago

Its a social studies article masking as a tech article because iPhone. Its what you get when hipsters think they are hot shit with tech because they own something Apple made.

acqq 10y ago
As far as I understand the article was written by: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bryan_Burrough https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bryan_Burrough Yes, he is not a technology writer. But it's also obvious that the technology specialists weren't the target audience of this article. It is surely not easy read for us who expect to read the technical info, and who already know most of the context.
godmodus 10y ago
the problem is having it posted to Hackernews. who here reads vanity fair ? :P but let the normies have their day in the sun! not all hipsters are bad and i guess someone out there did enjoy the readup. i'd really wish these things weren't posted to HN though.
AznHisoka 10y ago
hipsters are like teenage sex. everyone talks about it and makes fun of it but it dorsnt really exist.

devoply 10y ago

Funny Israeli company helping Arab governments crack down on dissidents. Money. It brings the whole world together.