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Last week, we reported multiple flaws in iOS that had been uncovered by Google's Project Zero team, the most affected iPhones. A total of 14 vulnerabilities were discovered, including exploits for the Safari web browser and the iOS kernel itself. Surprisingly, the authors of these exploits were able to conduct "drive by" type attacks to steal photos, contact information and application data from iPhone users having simply visited malicious websites with their iPhone.
While Apple quickly corrected the vulnerabilities when it was alerted, we did not learn last week who had actually conducted the attacks using these previously unknown vectors. Now, thanks to the reports of TechCrunchwe have a good idea of who was behind the scheme and who the targets were. According to the report, the attacks were sponsored by the state, the likely perpetrator being China.
The attacks targeted mainly the Muslim Uyghur community residing in the Chinese territory of Xinjiang (autonomous region). Muslims are a minority in China and the government has been accused of spying on the community and even placing people in internment camps. The Chinese government's efforts to infiltrate the Uighur community have been facilitated by the devastating iOS vulnerabilities.
With "thousands of visitors" accessing a malicious website, not only their personal data was captured, but also their location data, which allowed them to be tracked at the request of the Chinese government. While the Uyghur community was the main target, anyone visiting malicious websites was putting their personal data and geographical coordinates at risk.
If you have an iPhone in your possession, there is a good chance that you are already protected against the exploits iOS and Safari. After Apple was notified in early February 2019 of these vulnerabilities, they were fixed with iOS 12.1.4 on February 7th.th.
The latest version of Apple's mobile operating system is version 12.4.1. The next generation of Apple's iOS 13 will be available to the public later this month after the launch of this year's iPhone family.
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