{"id":27815,"date":"2023-03-29T22:15:21","date_gmt":"2023-03-29T22:15:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/scienceandnerds.com\/2023\/03\/29\/hackers-used-spyware-made-in-spain-to-target-users-in-the-uae-google-says\/"},"modified":"2023-03-29T22:15:21","modified_gmt":"2023-03-29T22:15:21","slug":"hackers-used-spyware-made-in-spain-to-target-users-in-the-uae-google-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scienceandnerds.com\/2023\/03\/29\/hackers-used-spyware-made-in-spain-to-target-users-in-the-uae-google-says\/","title":{"rendered":"Hackers used spyware made in Spain to target users in the UAE, Google says"},"content":{"rendered":"

Source:https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2023\/03\/29\/hackers-variston-spyware-uae-google\/<\/a><\/br>
\nHackers used spyware made in Spain to target users in the UAE, Google says<\/br>
\n2023-03-29 22:15:21<\/br><\/p>\n

\n

In November 2022, Google revealed the existence<\/a> of a then-unknown spyware vendor called Variston. Now, Google researchers say they have seen hackers use Variston\u2019s tools in the United Arab Emirates.<\/p>\n

In a report published on Wednesday<\/a>, Google\u2019s Threat Analysis Group (TAG) said it discovered hackers targeting people in the UAE who used Samsung\u2019s native Android browser, which is a customized version of Chromium. The hackers used a set of vulnerabilities chained together and delivered via one-time web links sent to the targets by text message. Of the four vulnerabilities in the chain, two were zero-days at the time of the attack, meaning they had not been reported to the software maker and were unknown at that point, according to the new blog post by TAG.<\/p>\n

If a target clicked on the malicious web links, they would have been directed to a landing page \u201cidentical to the one TAG examined in the Heliconia framework<\/a> developed by commercial spyware vendor Variston.\u201d (Both campaigns used the same exact and unique landing page, Google told TechCrunch. Once exploited the victim would have been infected with \u201ca fully featured Android spyware suite\u201d designed to capture data from chat and browser apps, according to the post.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe actor using the exploit chain to target UAE users may be a customer or partner of Variston, or otherwise working closely with the spyware vendor,\u201d the blog post read.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unclear who is behind the hacking campaign or who the victims are. A Google spokesperson told TechCrunch that TAG observed about 10 malicious web links in the wild. Some of the links redirected to StackOverflow after exploitation and may have been the attacker\u2019s test devices, Google said. TAG said it wasn\u2019t clear who was behind the hacking campaign.<\/p>\n

Samsung did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

Ralf Wegener and Ramanan Jayaraman are the founders of Variston, according to Intelligence Online<\/a>, an online news publication that covers the surveillance industry. The two owned half of the company each in 2018, according to Spanish business records.<\/p>\n

Neither founder responded to a request for comment. Variston is headquartered in Barcelona, Spain. According to business registration records in Italy, Variston acquired the Italian zero-day research company Truel in 2018.<\/p>\n

The hacking campaign in the UAE was discovered by Amnesty International\u2019s Security Lab. In a press release<\/a>, Amnesty said that the campaign has been active since at least 2020 and targeted both mobile phones and computers. Amnesty said they observed the exploits being delivered by a network of more than 1,000 malicious domains, \u201cincluding domains spoofing media websites in multiple countries.\u201d The organization also said they observed traces of the campaign in Indonesia, Belarus, the UAE and Italy, but these countries \u201clikely represent only a small subset of the overall attack campaign based on the extensive nature of the wider attack infrastructure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Google also said on Wednesday that it discovered hackers exploiting an iOS zero-day bug, patched in November<\/a>, to remotely plant spyware on users\u2019 devices. The researchers say they observed attackers abusing the security flaw as part of an exploit chain targeting iPhone owners running iOS 15.1 and older located in Italy, Malaysia and Kazakhstan.<\/p>\n

The flaw was found in the WebKit browser engine that powers Safari and other apps, and was first discovered and reported by Google TAG researchers. Apple patched the bug in December, confirming at the time that the company was aware that the vulnerability was actively exploited \u201cagainst versions of iOS released before iOS 15.1.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hackers also used a second iOS vulnerability described as a PAC bypass technique<\/a> that was fixed by Apple in March 2022, which Google researchers say is the exact technique used by North Macedonian spyware developer Cytrox to install its Predator spyware. Citizen Lab previously released a report highlighting widespread government use of the Predator spyware<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Google also observed hackers exploiting a chain of three Android bugs targeting devices running an ARM-based graphics chip, including one zero-day. Google said ARM released a fix, but several vendors \u2014 including Samsung, Xiaomi, Oppo and Google itself \u2014 did not incorporate the patch, resulting in \u201ca situation where attackers were able to freely exploit the bug for several months,\u201d Google said.<\/p>\n

The discovery of these new hacking campaigns is \u201ca reminder that the commercial spyware industry continues to thrive, says Google. \u201cEven smaller surveillance vendors have access to 0-days, and vendors stockpiling and using 0-day vulnerabilities in secret poses a severe risk to the Internet.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThese campaigns may also indicate that exploits and techniques are being shared between surveillance vendors, enabling the proliferation of dangerous hacking tools,\u201d the blog read.<\/p>\n

This story has been updated with a statement from Amnesty International.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/br><\/br><\/br><\/p>\n

Science, Tech, Technology<\/br>
\n<\/br>
\nSource:https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2023\/03\/29\/hackers-variston-spyware-uae-google\/<\/a><\/br><\/br><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source:https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2023\/03\/29\/hackers-variston-spyware-uae-google\/ Hackers used spyware made in Spain to target users in the UAE, Google says 2023-03-29 22:15:21 In November 2022, Google revealed the existence of a then-unknown spyware vendor called Variston. Now, Google researchers say they have seen hackers use Variston\u2019s tools in the United Arab Emirates. In a report published on Wednesday, Google\u2019s Threat […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27816,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,17,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science","category-tech","category-technology"],"yoast_head":"\nHackers used spyware made in Spain to target users in the UAE, Google says - Science and Nerds<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/scienceandnerds.com\/2023\/03\/29\/hackers-used-spyware-made-in-spain-to-target-users-in-the-uae-google-says\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Hackers used spyware made in Spain to target users in the UAE, Google says - Science and Nerds\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Source:https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2023\/03\/29\/hackers-variston-spyware-uae-google\/ Hackers used spyware made in Spain to target users in the UAE, Google says 2023-03-29 22:15:21 In November 2022, Google revealed the existence of a then-unknown spyware vendor called Variston. 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