Tag Archive for: zeroday

Price of zero-day exploits rises as companies harden products against hackers

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Tools that allow government hackers to break into iPhones and Android phones, popular software like the Chrome and Safari browsers, and chat apps like WhatsApp and iMessage, are now worth millions of dollars — and their price has multiplied in the last few years as these products get harder to hack.

On Monday, startup Crowdfense published its updated price list for these hacking tools, which are commonly known as “zero-days,” because they rely on unpatched vulnerabilities in software that are unknown to the makers of that software. Companies like Crowdfense and one of its competitors Zerodium claim to acquire these zero-days with the goal of re-selling them to other organizations, usually government agencies or government contractors, which claim they need the hacking tools to track or spy on criminals.

Crowdfense is now offering between $5 and $7 million for zero-days to break into iPhones, up to $5 million for zero-days to break into Android phones, up to $3 million and $3.5 million for Chrome and Safari zero-days respectively, and $3 to $5 million for WhatsApp and iMessage zero-days.

In its previous price list, published in 2019, the highest payouts that Crowdfense was offering were $3 million for Android and iOS zero-days.

The increase in prices comes as companies like Apple, Google, and Microsoft are making it harder to hack their devices and apps, which means their users are better protected.

“It should be harder year over year to exploit whatever software we’re using, whatever devices we’re using,” said Dustin Childs, who is the head of threat awareness at Trend Micro ZDI. Unlike CrowdFense and Zerodium, ZDI pays researchers to acquire zero-days, then reports them to the companies affected with the goal of getting the vulnerabilities fixed.

“As more zero-day vulnerabilities are discovered by threat intelligence teams like Google’s, and platform protections continue to improve, the time and effort required from attackers increases, resulting in an increase in cost for their findings,” said Shane Huntley, the head of Google’s Threat Analysis Group, which tracks hackers and the use of zero-days.

In a report last month, Google said it saw hackers use 97 zero-day…

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Hackers Target Google Pixel Zero-Day Exploit

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Oh, the world of device and computer security never stops turning. Pay attention, kiddies, because there is job security in working in computer and device security. There’s not a week, or day for that matter, that doesn’t go by where a new security issue is being reported. This time, it’s the Google Pixel smartphone that is the target of hackers. Tomorrow it could be the iPhone or some other piece of software. Here’s what’s going on with the Google Pixel zero-day exploit.

Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

According to security researchers at GrapheneOS, a company that makes a more secure version of Android, hackers have been exploiting zero-day vulnerabilities to attack Google Pixel smartphones. Google has issued an advisory concerning newly discovered bugs that are being used for targeted attacks. “There are indications that the following may be under limited, targeted exploitation,” the advisory says.

According to PCMag, It doesn’t look like traditional cybercriminals or cyber spies have abused the vulnerabilities to attack the phones remotely. Google is crediting the zero-days discovery to Daniel Micay, a cybersecurity researcher and founder of GrapheneOS, an Android-based operating system focused on security. According to GrapheneOS, “forensic companies” have been exploiting the two vulnerabilities to retrieve data from Pixel phones.

Google Pixel

The rear camera bump on the Google Pixel 7a Android smartphone
The rear camera bump on the Google Pixel 7a Android smartphone.

  • The first vulnerability, CVE-2024-29745, involves the Pixel line’s bootloader, which loads the operating system into the phone’s memory.
  • The second vulnerability, CVE-2024-29748, can allow an attacker “to interrupt a factory reset triggered by a device admin app.”

Google plans on rolling out security patches for Google Pixel smartphones soon, so be sure to check your updates for that. If you want to dive a little deeper into the vulnerabilities, PCMag goes a bit more in depth about them in their article, so be sure to visit them.

What do you think of this zero-day exploit? You may comment by using the social media buttons below. Share on your favorite social media site and tag us on Facebook, X, MeWe, and LinkedIn. Or join our Telegram channel here.

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Google reports a significant surge in zero-day vulnerabilities in 2023

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A new report released today by Google LLC’s Threat Analysis Group and Google-owned Mandiant warns that zero-day exploits have become more common amid a rise in nation-state hackers.

The report, “We’re All in this Together: A Year in Review of Zero-Days Exploited In-the-Wild in 2023,” detailed 97 zero-day vulnerabilities observed by Google in 2023, up from 62 in 2023 but down from 106 in 2021. Zero-day attacks exploit a previously unknown vulnerability in software before developers have had the opportunity to fix it.

Of the 97 zero-days tracked in 2023, 36 targeted enterprise-focused technologies, such as security software and devices, while the remaining 61 affected end-user platforms and products, such as mobile devices, operating systems, browsers and other applications.

Adversary exploitation of enterprise-specific technologies jumped 64% over the previous year, with Google also seeing a general increase in the number of enterprise vendors targeted since 2019. Attackers were seen to be shifting to third-party components and libraries in 2023, as zero-day vulnerabilities in both were found to be a prime attack surface in 2023.

Commercial surveillance vendors — companies that develop and sell tools and software designed for monitoring and gathering intelligence, often used by governments — were found to be behind 75% of known zero-day exploits targeting Google products and Android ecosystem devices in 2023. CSVs were also found to be behind 60% of the 37 zero-day vulnerabilities in browsers and mobile devices exploited in 2023.

The report alleges that China was the lead source of government-back exploitation, claiming that Chinese cyber espionage groups exploited 12 zero-day vulnerabilities in 2023, up from seven in 2022.

Another finding in the report was surprising: The Google researchers found that exploitation associated with financially motivated actors proportionally decreased in 2023, with financially motivated actors found to account for only 10 zero-day exploits last year. Threat group FIN11 was found to be behind three of them.

“Exploiting zero-days is no longer a niche capability,” the report notes. “The proliferation of exploit technology…

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Google Confirms Massive Increase In Zero-Day Vulnerabilities Exploited In Attacks Due To Spyware Vendors

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Google has published a new report that speaks about the significant rise in zero-day vulnerabilities that continue to be exploited in attacks from 2023.

Both its Threat Analysis Group, as well as the company’s subsidiary firm Mandiant, mentioned how the figures continue to grow as we speak and a lot of that has to do with spyware vendors.

The figures reached 97 zero-days and that stood for more than a 50% rise when you compare it to the past which was just 62. But despite such an increase, the numbers are still much lower than the rise of 106 seen back in the year 2021.

Both entities collectively witnessed 29 out of the 97 vulnerabilities. They even spoke about 61 impacted end users who made use of Google’s products and services such as mobile phones, browsers, and social media apps.

Furthermore, the rest of them were utilized to attack tech like security software and a host of other leading devices in this regard. As far as the enterprise side is concerned, there’s a mega array of vendors as well as products under target and we’re seeing more specific tech getting impacted as a result of this.

Let’s not forget how they’ve seen that as the years pass by, the faster they’re discovering the patch featuring bugs from attackers and this means shorter lifespans arising due to the exploit in question.

In 2023, plenty of threat actors made use of zero-day vulnerabilities that went up to Figure 10. And interestingly, it was China that was highlighted as being behind most of the attacks that had support from the government. Some of those entailed espionage groups from the country which was a trend moving upward.

In 2023, it was all thanks to commercial surveillance that seemed to be the culprit of these attacks that kept on targeting both Android as well as Google devices.

They include up to 75% of all those zero-day exploitations that kept on hitting the platforms. In addition to that, there were vendors

Other than that, most of the 37 zero-day vulnerabilities found on browsers as well as devices that were exploited in 2023 had Google linking close to 60% of all CSVs that keep on selling spyware to clients in the government.

Way back in February, Google revealed how so many…

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