A bill that would allow police in France to spy on suspects by remotely activating cameras, microphone including GPS of their phones has been passed.

  • Pili@lemmygrad.ml
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    13
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    1 year ago

    From the Guardian article somebody else linked:

    One of the most significant challenges that Pegasus presents to journalists and human rights defenders is the fact that the software exploits undiscovered vulnerabilities, meaning even the most security-conscious mobile phone user cannot prevent an attack.

    • eleitl@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      6
      ·
      1 year ago

      This isn’t even wrong. What is the attack vector? They send a magic message that 0wns Signal, and then cleans up? At scale? With nobody noticing? This doesn’t happen.

      • RandomBit@lemmy.sdf.org
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        8
        ·
        1 year ago

        A few comments, they don’t need to have a Signal vulnerability, just an OS vulnerability since that would allow access to decrypted Signal messages. In the past, there have been zero click SMS and iMessage vulnerabilities. There have also been web vulnerabilities.

        The attacks are not sent at scale to avoid detection. They are used on specific dissidents and journalists.

        • eleitl@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          edit-2
          1 year ago

          You need to exploit an OS vulnerability or use suitable baseband processor as a backdoor, facilitated by the cellular operator. To exploit the OS or an a service on it you need a network connection. You can’t inject through an ad if there is no browser or email if there is no client.

          Yes, you can spearphish but this can’t mass-target French mobile users as the article seems to claim. France isn’t North Korea, not just yet.

    • dontblink@feddit.it
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      TIme to find out what the vulnerabilieties are and EXPOSE them in a OPEN repository.