Android smartphone device manufacturer Samsung has a patch for a flaw used by commercial surveillance hackers to implant malware in the United Arab Emirates. Security researchers at Google and Amnesty International in March reported an exploit chain apparently developed by Barcelona spyware vendor Variston to deploy a surveillance malware to devices located in the UAE….

Researchers found Android malware masquerading as a legitimate application available and downloaded over 620,000 times from the Google Play store. The apps have been active since 2022, posing as legitimate photo-editing apps, camera editors and smartphone wallpaper packs. Researchers found 11 legitimate applications infected with the malware, dubbed Fleckpe by Kaspersky, which have been since…

Google’s Android security bulletin for April 2023 describes 26 vulnerabilities resolved in the Framework and System components as part of the 2023-04-01 security patch level. Most of these are high-severity flaws leading to elevation of privilege (EoP) or information disclosure. Two of the 16 issues addressed in System, however, are critical-severity RCE bugs, tracked as…

Several commercial spyware vendors developed and used zero-day exploits against iOS and Android users last year. However, their exploit chains also relied on known vulnerabilities to work, highlighting the importance of both users and device manufacturers to speed up the adoption of security patches. “The zero-day exploits were used alongside n-day exploits and took advantage…

Google suspended popular budget e-commerce application Pinduoduo from the Play Store after detecting malware on versions of the Chinese app downloadable from other online stores. In a statement on Tuesday, Google said it took action to block the installation of Pinduoduo on Android devices and said it would scan smartphones for malicious versions through its…

The author of the Xenomorph Android malware, the Hadoken Security Group, continues to improve their malicious code. In February 2022, researchers from ThreatFabric first spotted the Xenomorph malware, which was distributed via the official Google Play Store reaching over 50,000 installations. The banking Trojan was used to target 56 European banks and steal sensitive information…

A version of the Shein shopping application in the Google Play store with more than 100 million downloads was unnecessarily accessing Android-device clipboard contents, creating a potential security threat, according to Microsoft. The software giant said in a blog post from Microsoft Threat Intelligence that it asked Shein to remove the feature from its Android…

Since 2011, Hinchy has owned and operated numerous companies, including the 16 investigated by the New York OAG, for selling and promoting spyware targeting Android and iOS devices, including Auto Forward, Easy Spy, DDI Utilities, Highster Mobile, PhoneSpector, Surepoint, and TurboSpy. Once installed on victim devices, the spyware would collect and exfiltrate data such as…

On December 2022, Apple released security updates to address a new zero-day vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2022-42856, that is actively exploited in attacks against iPhones. The IT giant released security bulletins for iOS/iPadOS 15.7.2, Safari 16.2, tvOS 16.2, and macOS Ventura 13.1. Apple addressed the vulnerability with improved state handling for the iPhone 6s (all models),…

The legal salvo came as problems are mounting for TikTok in the United States, with multiple accusations that the extremely popular app is a national security threat and a conduit for spying by China. “The TikTok app is a malicious and menacing threat unleashed on unsuspecting Indiana consumers by a Chinese company that knows full…