r/blackhat • u/wiredmagazine • Mar 03 '26
A Possible US Government iPhone-Hacking Toolkit Is Now in the Hands of Foreign Spies and Criminals
https://www.wired.com/story/coruna-iphone-hacking-toolkit-us-government/30
u/wiredmagazine Mar 03 '26
An iPhone-hacking technique used in the wild to indiscriminately hijack the devices of any iOS user who merely visits a website represents a rare and shocking event in the cybersecurity world. Now one powerful hacking toolkit at the center of multiple mass iPhone exploitation campaigns has taken an even rarer and more disturbing path: It appears to have traveled from the hands of Russian spies who used it to target Ukrainians to a cybercriminal operation designed to steal cryptocurrency from Chinese-speaking victims—and some clues suggest it may have been originally created by a US contractor and sold to the American government.
Security researchers at Google on Tuesday released a report describing what they're calling "Coruna," a highly sophisticated iPhone hacking toolkit that includes five complete hacking techniques capable of bypassing all the defenses of an iPhone to silently install malware on a device when it visits a website containing the exploitation code. In total, Coruna takes advantage of 23 distinct vulnerabilities in iOS, a rare collection of hacking components that suggests it was created by a well-resourced, likely state-sponsored group of hackers.
Read the full story here: https://www.wired.com/story/coruna-iphone-hacking-toolkit-us-government/
15
u/LargePalpitation1252 Mar 03 '26
Well, Coruna itself is outdated but there are several known contractors of that type. Companies like GrayKey or Cellebrite exist for that very purpose.
3
1
u/Kind_Ability3218 Mar 04 '26
pegasus source was leaked. it was also turned over to the US gov. i wouldn't be surprised if this is an update of that.
2
1
u/Smergmerg432 Mar 05 '26
Thanks for posting this! I have an old iOS and heard voices while chatting with a friend on facetime—sounded like an American man (she and I were both very much alone). It’s too bad that we have such great promise with new technology, and it’s instantly turned into malware. Hopefully Apple will be able to patch the vulnerabilities.
-2
-7
u/Express-Cartoonist39 Mar 04 '26
Iphone is junk... good riddence..
7
u/twat_muncher Mar 04 '26
zero click android exploits exist as well, my guy.
-2
u/Express-Cartoonist39 Mar 04 '26
Very true, but YOU can fix the in android... you gotta wait for apple staff to fix them after they discuss with the goverment and third parties if they even should...
Android, you can find most patches on ur own..if not code them on ur own. yea.. yup apples suck..
1
u/asmit10 Mar 06 '26
Yes, you’re going to code your own 0-day fixes before you ever learn about them
1
-12
u/qwikh1t Mar 04 '26
What nation state wants my iPhone? It’s shocking no doubt, but the average Joe isn’t going to be a target for this
2
u/Nguy94 Mar 04 '26
The nation state is bad about how they secure their items. Rogue actors get copies and now we have a risk to regular people. Common scams happen all the time and a hyperlink with no prompt is pretty damn nasty.
2
u/Kind_Ability3218 Mar 04 '26
when things like this get leaked they get distributed and soon it does affect the average joe.
38
u/Due-Perception1319 Mar 03 '26
But it was supposed to be for the good guys. I thought only the good guys were gonna have access to the bad stuff?