Created on 2024-12-17 20:41 and updated on 2024-12-17 21:34.

Description

Amnesty International identified how Serbian authorities used Cellebrite to exploit a zero-day vulnerability (a software flaw which is not known to the original software developer and for which a software fix is not available) in Android devices to gain privileged access to an environmental activist’s phone. The vulnerability, identified in collaboration with security researchers at Google Project Zero and Threat Analysis Group, affected millions of Android devices worldwide that use the popular Qualcomm chipsets. An update fixing the security issue was released in the October 2024 Qualcomm Security Bulletin.

Related bundle on Vulnerability-Lookup (Patch for Android).

Investigation from Amnesty International

https://github.com/AmnestyTech/investigations/tree/master/2024-12-16_serbia_novispy

“A Digital Prison”: Surveillance and the suppression of civil society in Serbia

https://securitylab.amnesty.org/latest/2024/12/a-digital-prison-surveillance-and-the-suppression-of-civil-society-in-serbia/

Vulnerabilities included in this bundle

Meta

[
  {
    "ref": [
      "https://googleprojectzero.blogspot.com/2024/12/qualcomm-dsp-driver-unexpectedly-excavating-exploit.html",
      "https://securitylab.amnesty.org/latest/2024/12/serbia-a-digital-prison-spyware-and-cellebrite-used-on-journalists-and-activists/",
      "https://github.com/AmnestyTech/investigations/tree/master/2024-12-16_serbia_novispy",
      "https://securitylab.amnesty.org/latest/2024/12/a-digital-prison-surveillance-and-the-suppression-of-civil-society-in-serbia/"
    ]
  }
]

Author

Cédric Bonhomme

Combined sightings

Author Vulnerability Source Type Date