All news with #mobile security tag

📢 Researchers report that the Predator spyware operator Intellexa developed a zero-click delivery mechanism called Aladdin that can infect targets simply by serving a weaponized advertisement. The technique abuses commercial mobile advertising systems and Demand Side Platforms to force malicious ads to specific IPs and devices, with viewing alone triggering redirections to exploit servers. First deployed in 2024 and routed through shell companies across multiple countries, the campaign is corroborated by leaked Intellexa documents and technical analysis from Amnesty, Google, and Recorded Future. Analysts recommend blocking ads, hiding public IPs, and using platform protections, though leaked materials suggest operators can obtain subscriber IP/location data from local mobile operators.

🔒 Google is expanding its Android in-call scam protection to cover several U.S. financial apps, including Cash App and the JPMorgan Chase mobile banking app. The feature, introduced with Android 16, warns users when they launch a financial app while sharing their screen during a call with an unknown number, presenting a persistent 30-second alert that only allows ending the call. The protection runs on Android 11 and later and remains in a testing phase.

🔒 Android is expanding its pilot for in-call scam protection that detects when users launch participating financial apps while screen sharing during calls from unsaved numbers. The feature warns users, offers a one-tap end-call and stop-sharing option, and enforces a 30-second pause to disrupt social engineering. After UK success and pilots in Brazil and India, Google is rolling pilots with US fintechs including Cash App and banks like JPMorganChase.

🔍 Google Threat Intelligence Group (GTIG) analysis shows that Intellexa, vendor of the Predator spyware, continues to develop and deploy zero‑day exploits against mobile browsers and operating systems despite sanctions. GTIG attributes 15 unique zero‑days to Intellexa out of roughly 70 discovered since 2021, spanning RCE, sandbox escape, and LPE flaws on iOS, Android, and Chrome. The company uses modular exploit frameworks, acquires exploit chain steps from third parties, delivers payloads via one‑time messaging links and malvertising, and embeds anti‑analysis watcher modules to abort operations on detection.

🔒 India's Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has directed messaging apps to bind accounts to an active, KYC‑verified SIM linked to the user's mobile number, with platforms required to comply within 90 days. The amendment to the Telecommunications (Telecom Cyber Security) Rules, 2024 aims to curb phishing, cross‑border fraud and remote account takeovers by closing gaps from long‑lived web/desktop sessions. Providers must enforce continuous SIM linkage and force web sessions to log out every six hours, requiring QR re‑linking. The DoT also announced a Mobile Number Validation (MNV) platform for decentralized, privacy‑compliant verification.

⚠️ CISA added two Android Framework vulnerabilities to the KEV Catalog: CVE-2025-48572 (privilege escalation) and CVE-2025-48633 (information disclosure). Both issues show evidence of active exploitation and pose significant risk to the federal enterprise. Under BOD 22-01, FCEB agencies must remediate cataloged vulnerabilities by their due dates; CISA strongly urges all organizations to prioritize timely patching and other mitigations.

🔒 In its December Android Security Bulletin, Google disclosed 107 zero-day vulnerabilities affecting Android and AOSP-based systems, publishing fixes for 51 issues on December 1 and promising the remaining 56 on December 5. Among the patched flaws, two high-severity framework bugs (CVE-2025-48633 and CVE-2025-48572) may be under limited targeted exploitation and affect Android 13–16. The bulletin also lists a critical framework vulnerability (CVE-2025-48631) that can cause a remote denial-of-service without additional privileges. Patches for kernel and third-party components from vendors such as Arm, MediaTek, Qualcomm and others will follow.

🕹️ The UK Information Commissioner's Office has launched a focused review of 10 popular mobile games to assess compliance with the Children’s Code (Age-Appropriate Design Code). The review will scrutinize default privacy settings, geolocation controls, targeted advertising and other design features that could affect children’s privacy. The ICO cited parental research showing high levels of concern about data collection, exposure to strangers and harmful content in mobile games.

🔒 Google released its December 2025 Android security update addressing 107 vulnerabilities across Framework, System, Kernel and components from Arm, Imagination Technologies, MediaTek, Qualcomm, and Unison. Two high-severity Framework defects — CVE-2025-48633 (information disclosure) and CVE-2025-48572 (privilege elevation) — are reported as exploited in the wild. A separate critical Framework issue, CVE-2025-48631, could enable remote DoS without added privileges. Google published two patch levels, 2025-12-01 and 2025-12-05, and users should update promptly when vendors release device-specific builds.

⚠️ The popular open-source SmartTube YouTube client for Android TV was compromised after the developer's signing keys were stolen, allowing a malicious update to be distributed to users. A hidden native library, libalphasdk.so, was discovered in release builds and appears absent from the public source. The library runs silently, fingerprints devices, registers them with a remote backend, and exchanges encrypted configuration, while the developer has revoked the old signature and plans a rebuilt app under a new ID, though definitive safe versions and a full public post-mortem are not yet available.

📱 India’s telecommunications ministry has instructed major handset manufacturers to preload the government-backed cybersecurity app Sanchar Saathi on all new phones within 90 days, according to Reuters. The directive, dated November 28, 2025, reportedly requires the app to be non-removable and non-disableable and mandates pushing it via updates to devices already in the supply chain. Sanchar Saathi enables reporting of fraud and malicious links, blocking and tracking stolen devices, and checking multiple mobile connections; it has more than 11.4 million installs and has helped trace and recover hundreds of thousands of handsets.

🛡️ A new Android malware family, Albiriox, has emerged on Russian-speaking cybercrime forums as a Malware-as-a-Service offering full device takeover and real-time fraud capabilities. Cleafy says it already targets more than 400 banking and cryptocurrency applications and combines VNC-style remote control with accessibility-driven UI automation, overlays and black-screen fraud techniques. Initial subscriptions were advertised at $650–$720 per month and the developers promote crypting to evade detection.

📱 Cleafy researchers disclosed Albiriox, a new Android malware offered as a malware‑as‑a‑service that facilitates on‑device fraud, screen manipulation, and real‑time remote control. The family includes a hard‑coded list of over 400 banking, fintech, payment processor, exchange and wallet apps and is distributed via packed droppers and lookalike Google Play pages using social‑engineering lures. Infections often begin with German‑language SMS or fake PENNY app listings that deliver a dropper APK which requests installation permissions and then deploys the main payload. Albiriox uses an unencrypted TCP C2 and a VNC‑based remote module that abuses Android accessibility services to stream UI elements and bypass FLAG_SECURE, enabling overlays, credential harvesting, and hidden background fraud.

🛡️ CISA has warned that cybercriminals and state-backed actors are using spyware to target users of encrypted messaging apps including Signal, WhatsApp, and Telegram. Rather than breaking end-to-end encryption, attackers compromise devices to access messages, files, contacts, call history, and location data. Techniques include fake QR codes that link accounts to attacker-controlled devices, malicious updates, and zero-click exploits that trigger on receipt of a malformed image or file. Users are urged to keep devices and apps updated, avoid installing software from untrusted sources, and treat unexpected messages or files with suspicion.

🔐CISA warns that threat actors are actively using commercial spyware and remote-access trojans to target users of mobile messaging apps, combining technical exploits with tailored social engineering to gain unauthorized access. Recent campaigns include abuse of Signal's linked-device feature, Android spyware families ProSpy, ToSpy and ClayRat, a chained iOS/WhatsApp exploit (CVE-2025-43300, CVE-2025-55177) targeting a small number of users, and a Samsung flaw (CVE-2025-21042) used to deliver LANDFALL. CISA urges high-value individuals and organizations to adopt layered defenses: E2EE, FIDO phishing-resistant MFA instead of SMS, password managers, device updates, platform hardening (Lockdown Mode, iCloud Private Relay, app-permission audits, Google Play Protect), and to prefer modern hardware from vendors with strong security records.

🔍 Check Point's Harmony Mobile Detection Team discovered a broad Android adware campaign on Google Play that operated as a persistent background advertising engine. Masquerading as benign utilities and emoji editors, the apps continued running after closure or reboot, quietly consuming battery and mobile data. The campaign, dubbed GhostAd, comprised at least 15 related apps, with five still available at discovery.

📱 CISA warns that multiple cyber threat actors are actively using commercial spyware to target users of mobile messaging applications. These actors employ phishing, malicious device-linking QR codes, zero-click exploits, and impersonation of platforms such as Signal and WhatsApp to gain unauthorized access and deploy additional malicious payloads. CISA urges users to review updated mobile communications guidance and mitigations to reduce spyware risk.

📱 Google has made Quick Share interoperable with Apple's AirDrop, enabling two-way file transfers between Pixel devices and iPhones starting with the Pixel 10 family. The implementation uses AirDrop's "Everyone for 10 minutes" direct, device-to-device mode with no server intermediaries. Google says it applied threat modeling, internal security and privacy reviews, Rust parsing to reduce memory risks, and independent NetSPI testing. Users must manually confirm recipients before sharing.

📡 Google updated Quick Share to interoperate with Apple's AirDrop, enabling direct file transfers between Pixel 10 devices and iPhone, iPad, and macOS. Transfers require the Apple device to be discoverable to Everyone for 10 minutes, while Android users must set Quick Share visibility to Everyone or use Receive mode. Google said the implementation is built in memory-safe Rust, avoids routing data through servers, and was independently assessed and hardened after a low-severity information-disclosure issue was fixed.

🔒 Samsung Galaxy devices with Knox Suite combine hardware-rooted protections and centralized management to help IT secure corporate data without slowing users. Built-in at manufacture, Knox delivers multi-layered defenses—secure boot, trusted execution environments, and integrated malware protections—while fitting into existing EMM workflows. Native Zero Trust support, ZTNA and near-real-time telemetry from Knox Asset Intelligence feed SIEMs so mobile threats are visible alongside other alerts.