After researchers from a popular digital watchdog group Citizen Lab found a big security problem in Apple devices related to the controversial Israeli company NSO, Apple, in response, has rolled out security updates that fix two serious security issues.
The Israeli firm has been blacklisted by the US government since 2021 for alleged abuses, including surveillance of government officials and journalists.
Recently, Citizen Lab, in a blogpost, said that they have found a serious security problem last week - a zero-click vulnerability. It means that hackers can attack without the person receiving the malware having to click on anything, like an attachment. They also said the vulnerability was used as part of an exploit chain designed to deliver NSO Group’s malware, known as Pegasus.
“The exploit chain was capable of compromising iPhones running the latest version of iOS (16.6) without any interaction from the victim,” Citizen Lab wrote in a blogpost. Once they found the vulnerability, the researchers reported it to Apple, which released a patch on Thursday.
The Cupertino-based tech giant also patched another vulnerability and attributed its finding to the company itself. A report from TechCrunch suggested that the company might have found the second vulnerability while investigating the first. Meanwhile, Citizen Lab did not provide further details on the affected individual or the organization, said Reuters.
Meanwhile, Apple is gearing up to host its ‘Wonderlust’ event on Tuesday, September 12. During this event, the company will introduce its latest iPhone 15 models, which include the iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Plus, iPhone 15 Pro, and iPhone 15 Pro Max/Ultra.
Alongside the iPhone 15 series, the brand is also expected to unveil new smartwatches — Apple Watch Series 9 and Watch Ultra 2 and new AirPods featuring a USB-C port.
The company will host the ‘Wonderlust’ event on Tuesday at 10:00 AM in Apple Park, California. Apple will also livestream the event, which will start with Apple CEO Tim Cook keynotes.
