A industrial spy ware firm referred to as Intellexa has exploited 15 zero-day vulnerabilities since 2021 to focus on iOS and Android customers worldwide.
The corporate, recognized for growing the Predator spy ware, continues operations regardless of being sanctioned by the US authorities.
The threats stay energetic throughout a number of international locations, with latest assaults detected in Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Egypt, and different nations.
Intellexa has turn out to be probably the most energetic spy ware firms exploiting zero-day vulnerabilities in cellular browsers.
The assaults goal each iOS and Android gadgets by means of hidden hyperlinks despatched by way of encrypted messaging apps. Out of roughly 70 zero-day vulnerabilities found since 2021, Intellexa accounts for 15 distinctive exploits.
These embody Distant Code Execution, Sandbox Escape, and Native Privilege Escalation vulnerabilities. All affected distributors have now patched these safety flaws.
Google Cloud safety researchers recognized Intellexa’s continued actions by means of in depth menace evaluation.
The analysis revealed that Intellexa purchases exploit chains from exterior sources reasonably than growing all instruments internally. This method permits the corporate to rapidly adapt when safety patches are launched.
The corporate operates by means of entrance organizations to keep away from detection and continues serving clients worldwide regardless of worldwide sanctions.
The spy ware makes use of a three-stage assault course of to compromise gadgets. In a single documented case from Egypt, Intellexa deployed an exploit chain internally named “smack” to put in Predator spy ware on iOS gadgets.
Sesting and validating shellcode execution (Supply – Google Cloud)
The assault began with a Safari browser vulnerability tracked as CVE-2023-41993. The exploit used a framework referred to as JSKit to realize reminiscence learn and write entry.
This framework has appeared in a number of campaigns since 2021, together with assaults by Russian government-backed teams.
Code evaluation exhibits the framework is well-maintained and helps varied iOS variations.
An infection Mechanism and Stealth Capabilities
The second stage breaks out of the Safari sandbox utilizing kernel vulnerabilities CVE-2023-41991 and CVE-2023-41992.
This stage gives kernel reminiscence entry to the third-stage payload. The ultimate stage contains two modules referred to as helper and watcher.
The watcher module displays the contaminated machine for suspicious exercise. It checks for developer mode, console attachments, safety instruments, and customized community configurations.
If it detects US or Israel locales, safety apps like McAfee or Norton, or debugging instruments like Frida or SSH, it terminates the assault.
Intellexa Zero-Day Vulnerabilities (2021-2025):-
CVEVulnerability TypeVendorAffected ProductCVE-2025-48543SBX+LPEGoogleAndroidCVE-2025-6554RCEGoogleChromeCVE-2023-41993RCEAppleiOSCVE-2023-41992SBX+LPEAppleiOSCVE-2023-41991LPEAppleiOSCVE-2024-4610LPEARMMaliCVE-2023-4762RCEGoogleChromeCVE-2023-3079RCEGoogleChromeCVE-2023-2136SBXGoogleSkiaCVE-2023-2033RCEGoogleChromeCVE-2021-38003RCEGoogleChromeCVE-2021-38000RCEGoogleChromeCVE-2021-37976SBXGoogleChromeCVE-2021-37973SBXGoogleChromeCVE-2021-1048SBX+LPEGoogleAndroid
The helper module gives primary spy ware features by means of customized hooking frameworks named DMHooker and UMHooker.
These enable recording of voice calls, that are saved as /non-public/var/tmp/l/voip_percentlu_percentu_PART.m4a, capturing keystrokes, and taking photographs from the digicam.
The module additionally hooks into SpringBoard to cover notification alerts from these actions.
Compilation artifacts present the construct path as /Customers/gitlab_ci_2/builds/jbSFKQv5/0/roe/ios16.5-smackjs8-production/, confirming inside monitoring names.
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