Category Archives: Citizen Lab

Zoom has fixed an eavesdropping issue tied to their ‘waiting rooms’

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Earlier this week video teleconferencing company Zoom fixed an issue that would have allowed users in Zoom “waiting rooms” to spy on meetings even if they weren’t approved to attend them, according to researchers at Toronto-based Citizen Lab. Before the fix, which was issued on Sunday, Zoom servers automatically sent live streams of meetings and meeting decryption keys to the users in the rooms, where they must wait for approval to join a meeting. This vulnerability allowed those users to eavesdrop without approval. “Because users in a Zoom waiting room are not yet approved to join the meeting, and Zoom’s documentation appears to promote waiting rooms as a confidentiality feature, we assessed that this issue could represent a security concern,” Bill Marczak, a senior research fellow at Citizen Lab, and John Scott-Railton, a senior researcher at Citizen Lab, write in a blog post on the issue. The vulnerability would have been particularly relevant […]

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WhatsApp’s NSO Group Lawsuit, This Week in Data Breaches, Office 365 Voicemail Phishing

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You’re listening to the Shared Security Podcast, exploring the trust you put in people, apps, and technology…with your host, Tom Eston. In episode 93 for November 4th 2019: The WhatsApp NSO group lawsuit plus details on Facebook’s pre… Continue reading WhatsApp’s NSO Group Lawsuit, This Week in Data Breaches, Office 365 Voicemail Phishing→

WhatsApp Spyware Attack: Uncovering NSO Group Activity

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John Scott-Railton with Citizen Lab, who helped WhatsApp investigate the NSO Group over the alleged WhatsApp hack, said the subsequent lawsuit is a “certified big deal.” Continue reading WhatsApp Spyware Attack: Uncovering NSO Group Activity→

An ongoing hacking campaign targets dissidents in Egypt, researchers say

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Security researchers on Thursday detailed an ongoing hacking campaign against Egyptian human rights activists and journalists, showing how the attackers have planted their own malware in the Google Play Store to track their victims. An analysis of the hacking campaign by Check Point Software Technologies highlights how the hackers have not only used third-party apps to gain access to victim emails but also employed stealthy mobile apps that log the date and duration of calls, or the location of the caller. Evidence suggests the Egyptian government could be behind the activity, which dates back to 2016 and is more multifaceted than previously documented. If definitively tied to Egyptian authorities, it would be just the latest example of an autocratic regime aiming software tools at activists and critics. Under President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the Egyptian government has cracked down further on dissent, j­ailing activists and, NGOs say, abusing human rights. “We saw [the […]

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A cyber-espionage effort against Tibetan leaders leveraged known Android, iOS vulnerabilities

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Hackers aimed to infect mobile phones belonging to senior members of Tibetan groups, including people who worked directly for the Dalai Lama, as well as lawmakers in Tibet’s parliament, according to new findings from a team of researchers at the University of Toronto. The digital rights group Citizen Lab on Tuesday detailed an apparent cyber-espionage effort which involved attackers posing as journalists, Amnesty International researchers, nongovernmental organization workers and other faked identities to send malicious links in a WhatsApp conversation. Researchers observed the campaign, dubbed Poison Carp, between November 2018 and May 2019. Hackers relied on eight Android browser vulnerabilities, Android spyware, a single iOS exploit chain (a combination of malicious actions allowing hackers to achieve a goal) and iOS spyware. None of the attacks utilized zero-day exploits, the name given to hacking tools that take advantage of never-disclosed vulnerabilities. None of the intrusion attempts detected here were successful, but at […]

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Stealth Falcon Targets Middle East with Windows BITS Feature

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Cyberespionage attackers have ditched their PowerShell backdoor in favor of the Windows BITS ‘notification’ feature. Continue reading Stealth Falcon Targets Middle East with Windows BITS Feature→

Rights groups probe investments in NSO Group’s private equity firm

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Since a February shakeup of the management structure of Israeli spyware vendor NSO Group, whose software has allegedly been used to target journalists and other civilians, human rights activists have stepped up their scrutiny of the vendor’s new private equity firm. The probing of London-based Novalpina Capital, which now controls the NSO Group board, is an effort to highlight what critics say is a failure by NSO Group and its investors to prevent the abuse of the company’s mobile-phone hacking tools. Now, the inquiry is drawing attention to the unexpected role that pension funds in the U.S. and the UK are playing in the standoff between the Israeli vendor and digital rights groups like Amnesty International and Citizen Lab, a research center at University of Toronto’s Munk School. In a letter last week to Britain’s South Yorkshire Pensions Authority (SYPA), Citizen Lab Director Ron Deibert asked the pension fund to take a hard look […]

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‘Typosquatting’ campaign imitated news outlets to spread propaganda for years, report says

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Researchers have uncovered a years-long disinformation campaign in which suspected Iranian operatives masqueraded as well known international media outlets and used fake Twitter accounts to amplify fabricated news articles. The group, dubbed Endless Mayfly, published some 135 news articles on sites meant to look like Bloomberg, The Guardian, The Atlantic, Politico and others, according to findings published Tuesday by Citizen Lab, the team of researchers at the University of Toronto. The group impersonated outlets via a technique known as “typosquatting,” in which it used websites like “theatlatnic.com” instead of “theatlantic.com” to avoid detection. Endless Mayfly would use this method to push anti-Saudi narratives and other fabrications that would be picked up on social media and legitimate news outlets, Citizen Lab said. It also involved the use of 11 Twitter personas since 2016. The effort demonstrates how propagandists have adopted the SEO and social media tactics that media outlets and other organizations […]

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Google Gives Free Security Keys to Activists, But Not if You’re in Iran or Syria

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Sources and a document show how Google bars nonprofits from telling activists in certain countries about their products. Continue reading Google Gives Free Security Keys to Activists, But Not if You’re in Iran or Syria→

Israeli Hacking Company NSO Group Is Trying to Clean Up Its Image

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The notorious and controversial Israeli hacking and surveillance tools vendor NSO Group has launched a big marketing campaign with a new website and Google ads. Continue reading Israeli Hacking Company NSO Group Is Trying to Clean Up Its Image→