2 ms·
https://www.ft.com/content/4da1117e-756c-11e9-be7d-6d846537acab https://www.ft.com/content/4da1117e-756c-11e9-be7d-6d846537a... (and google "pegasus nso whatsap
by beagle3 7y ago
https://www.ft.com/content/4da1117e-756c-11e9-be7d-6d846537acab https://www.ft.com/content/4da1117e-756c-11e9-be7d-6d846537a... (and google "pegasus nso whatsapp" for more)
tl;dr: The exploitation was indeed done through apps. The OS itself is harder to exploit, but most apps are not as secure and provide the first foot-in-the-door for the attacker.
- saagarjha 7y agoI am responding specifically to the claim that once you've exploited an app, you have full access to the user's entire account (which is true to some extent on desktop platforms, but not on mobile OSes by default). I left a comment elsewhere about the kind of attack you're talking about: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22632756 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22632756
- beagle3 7y agoI see. Indeed, I agree it is not super easy to access everything on the mobile. But I am still convinced that having a myriad of different apps, most of which are developed without real regards to security, makes the attack surface much larger -- e.g. you are likely to find a popular exploitable app that already has legitimate access to user data (such as "all the time" location data, contacts, calendar, ...) - as NSO did with whatsapp.