Google says it has proof that Russian authorities hackers are utilizing exploits which are “identical or strikingly similar” to these beforehand made by spy ware makers Intellexa and NSO Group.
In a weblog put up on Thursday, Google mentioned it’s not certain how the Russian authorities acquired the exploits, however mentioned that is an instance of how exploits developed by spy ware makers can find yourself within the fingers of “dangerous threat actors.”
On this case, Google says the menace actors are APT29, a gaggle of hackers broadly attributed to Russia’s Overseas Intelligence Service, or the SVR. APT29 is a extremely succesful group of hackers, identified for its long-running and chronic campaigns aimed toward conducting espionage and information theft towards a variety of targets, together with tech giants Microsoft and SolarWinds, in addition to overseas governments.
Google mentioned it discovered the hidden exploit code embedded on Mongolian authorities web sites between November 2023 and July 2024. Throughout this time, anybody who visited these websites utilizing an iPhone or Android system might have had their cellphone hacked and information stolen, together with passwords, in what is called a “watering hole” assault.
The exploits took benefit of vulnerabilities within the iPhone’s Safari browser and Google Chrome on Android that had already been fastened on the time of the suspected Russian marketing campaign. Nonetheless, these exploits however might be efficient in compromising unpatched gadgets.
Based on the weblog put up, the exploit focusing on iPhones and iPads was designed to steal consumer account cookies saved in Safari particularly throughout a variety of on-line e mail suppliers that host the private and work accounts of the Mongolian authorities. The attackers might use the stolen cookies to then entry these authorities accounts. Google mentioned the marketing campaign aimed toward focusing on Android gadgets used two separate exploits collectively to steal consumer cookies saved within the Chrome browser.
Google safety researcher Clement Lecigne, who authored the weblog put up, advised TechCrunch that it’s not identified for sure who the Russian authorities hackers have been focusing on on this marketing campaign. “But based on where the exploit was hosted and who would normally visit these sites, we believe that Mongolian government employees were a likely target,” he mentioned.
Lecigne, who works for Google’s Menace Evaluation Group, the safety analysis unit that investigates government-backed cyber threats, mentioned Google is linking the reuse of the code to Russia as a result of the researchers beforehand noticed the identical cookie-stealing code utilized by APT29 throughout an earlier marketing campaign in 2021.
A key query stays: How did the Russian authorities hackers receive the exploit code to start with? Google mentioned each iterations of the watering gap marketing campaign focusing on the Mongolian authorities used code resembling or matching exploits from Intellexa and NSO Group. These two corporations are identified for creating exploits able to delivering spy ware that may compromise fully-patched iPhones and Android telephones.
Google mentioned the exploit code used within the watering gap assault focusing on Chrome customers on Android shared a “very similar trigger” with an exploit developed earlier by NSO Group. Within the case of the exploit focusing on iPhones and iPads, Google mentioned the code used the “exact same trigger as the exploit used by Intellexa,” which Google mentioned strongly steered that the exploit authors or suppliers “are the same.”
When requested by TechCrunch concerning the reuse of exploit code, Lecigne mentioned: “We do not believe the actor recreated the exploit,” ruling out the chance that the exploit was independently found by the Russian hackers.
“There are multiple possibilities as to how they could have acquired the same exploit, including purchasing it after it was patched or stealing a copy of the exploit from another customer,” mentioned Lecigne.
Google mentioned customers ought to “apply patches quickly” and preserve software program up-to-date to assist forestall malicious cyberattacks. Based on Lecigne, iPhone and iPad customers with the high-security function Lockdown Mode switched on weren’t affected even when working a susceptible software program model.
TechCrunch contacted the Russian Embassy in Washington DC and Mongolia’s Everlasting Mission to the United Nations in New York for remark, however didn’t hear again by press time. Intellexa couldn’t be reached for remark, and NSO Group didn’t return a request for remark. Apple spokesperson Shane Bauer didn’t reply to a request for remark.
