Apple fixes another zero-day used to deploy NSO iPhone spyware

Apple has released security updates to fix a zero-day vulnerability exploited in the wild by attackers to hack into iPhones and Macs running older iOS and macOS versions.

The zero-day patched today (tracked as CVE-2021-30869) [1, 2] was found in the XNU operating system kernel and was reported by Erye Hernandez and Clément Lecigne of Google Threat Analysis Group, and Ian Beer of Google Project Zero.

Successful exploitation of this bug leads to arbitrary code execution with kernel privileges on compromised devices.

« Apple is aware of a report that this issue may have been actively exploited, » Apple said when describing the zero-day bug.

The complete list of impacted devices includes:

• iPhone 5s, iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPad Air, iPad mini 2, iPad mini 3, and iPod touch (6th generation) running iOS 12.5.5
• and Macs with Security Update 2021-006 Catalina.

Apple also backported security updates for two previously patched zero-days, one of them reported by The Citizen Lab and used to deploy NSO Pegasus spyware on hacked devices.

Source :