But he notes that these challenges underscore the importance of raising awareness about interactionless attacks and working to develop detection capabilities. This doesn't undermine the necessity of defenses like end-to-end encryption, Wardle says. ![]() The messaging platform's end-to-end encryption, which protects data as it moves across the internet so it is only readable on the sender and receiver's devices, would make it difficult for Apple or security monitoring firms to detect if attackers were sending customized zero-click messages on the platform. ![]() Security analysts say that in many cases, the very features that make software more secure often make zero-click attacks harder to detect.įor example, researchers from Google's Project Zero published findings in August that Apple's iMessage had vulnerabilities that could potentially be exploited by simply sending someone a text. “Either way, it would be helpful for Apple to articulate how they came to this conclusion.”Įven the crudest zero-click attacks leave little trace, which makes tracking them an issue. “It is unlikely that if this vulnerability was used in highly targeted attacks that Apple would find evidence of such attack,” Wardle says. The fact that Apple has been unable to independently verify that the bugs were exploited in the wild is not surprising, says Patrick Wardle, a former National Security Agency analyst and Apple security researcher at the firm Jamf. But the attackers left other clues behind, indicating that they didn’t feel the need to be maximally cautious and that they were satisfied with using a somewhat down and dirty zero-click. The vulnerabilities ZecOps discovered would be difficult to exploit reliably, and the firm found indications of the attacks in crash logs and other digital remnants on some of its clients' iPhones. ![]() Even the prospect of copying emails then self-deleting the crafted ‘attack email’ is quite scary.” “A zero-click like this is especially interesting because it is not a full exploit chain, yet due to the nature of how it works, it could enable something like a smash-and-grab for mailbox data. And iOS security researcher and Guardian Firewall creator Will Strafach points out that while Apple and ZecOps are correct about the limited utility of the Mail bugs alone, it’s still important to take these types of bugs seriously. The ZecOps research suggests a different story, though: Perhaps attackers are willing to settle in some cases for using less reliable, but cheaper and more abundant zero-click tools.Īpple released test patches for the vulnerabilities in the iOS 13.4.5 beta, and the fix should enter wide release soon.Įven though the vulnerabilities ZecOps disclosed couldn’t be exploited for fundamental control on a target device, an attacker could still build a so-called “exploit chain” using the Mail bugs as just the first link to mount an invasive attack. Zero-click exploits are often thought of as highly reliable and sophisticated tools that are only developed and used by the most well-funded hackers, particularly nation state groups. They’re also valuable, because less interaction means fewer traces of any malicious activity. Vulnerabilities that can be exploited for zero-click attacks are rare and are prized by attackers because they don't require tricking targets into taking any action-an extra step that adds uncertainty in any hacking scheme. ![]() Research published this week by the threat monitoring firm ZecOps shows the types of vulnerabilities hackers can exploit to launch attacks that don’t require any interaction from the victim at all-and the ways such hacking tools may be proliferating undetected. But not all attacks require a user slip-up to open the door. Institutions and regular web users are always on alert about avoiding errant clicks and downloads online that could lead their devices to be infected with malware.
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