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Amnesty International said that Google fixed previously unknown flaws in Android that allowed authorities to unlock phones using forensic tools.<\/p>\n
On Friday, Amnesty International published a report<\/a> detailing a chain of three zero-day vulnerabilities<\/a> developed by phone-unlocking company Cellebrite, which its researchers found after investigating the hack of a student protester\u2019s phone in Serbia. The flaws were found in the core Linux USB kernel, meaning \u201cthe vulnerability is not limited to a particular device or vendor and could impact over a billion Android devices,\u201d according to the report.\u00a0<\/p>\n Zero-days are bugs in products that when found are unknown to the software or hardware makers. Zero-days allow criminal and government hackers to break into systems in a way that\u2019s more effective because there is no patch that fixes them yet.\u00a0<\/p>\n In this case, Amnesty said that it first found traces of one of the flaws in a case in mid-2024. Then, last year, after investigating the hack of a student activist in Serbia, the organization shared its findings with Google\u2019s anti-hacking unit Threat Analysis Group, which led the company researchers to identify and fix the three separate flaws.<\/p>\n During the investigation into the activist\u2019s phone, Amnesty researchers found the USB exploit, which allowed Serbian authorities, with the use of Cellebrite tools, to unlock the activist\u2019s phone.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n When reached for comment, Cellebrite spokesperson Victor Cooper referred to a statement<\/a> that the company published earlier this week.\u00a0<\/p>\n In December, Amnesty reported that it had found two cases<\/a> where Serbian authorities had used Cellebrite forensic tools to unlock the phones of an activist and a journalist, and subsequently installed an Android spyware known as Novispy. Earlier this week, Cellebrite announced<\/a> that it had stopped its Serbian customer from using its technology following the allegations of abuse uncovered by Amnesty.<\/p>\n \u201cAfter a review of the allegations brought forth by the December 2024 Amnesty International report, Cellebrite took precise steps to investigate each claim in accordance with our ethics and integrity policies. We found it appropriate to stop the use of our products by the relevant customers at this time,\u201d Cellebrite wrote in its statement.\u00a0<\/p>\n \t\t\tDo you have more information about government spyware and its makers? From a non-work device, you can contact Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai securely on Signal at +1 917 257 1382, or via Telegram and Keybase @lorenzofb, or email<\/a>.<\/a> You also can contact TechCrunch via SecureDrop<\/a>.\t\t<\/div>\n In the new report, Amnesty said it was contacted in January to analyze the device of a youth activist arrested by the Serbian Security Information Agency (Bezbedonosno-informativna agencija<\/em> or BIA) at the end of last year.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe circumstances of his arrest, and the behavior of the BIA officers, strongly matched the modus operandi that was used against protesters and that we documented in our report in December. A forensic investigation of the device conducted in January confirmed the use of Cellebrite on the student activist\u2019s phone,\u201d Amnesty wrote.<\/p>\n Like in the other cases, the authorities used a Cellebrite device to unlock the activist\u2019s Samsung A32 phone \u201cwithout his knowledge or consent, and outside a legally sanctioned investigation,\u201d according to Amnesty.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe seemingly routine use of Cellebrite software against people for exercising their rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly can never be a legitimate aim,\u201d Amnesty wrote, \u201cand therefore is in violation of human rights law.\u201d<\/p>\n Bill Marczak, a senior researcher at Citizen Lab, a digital rights organization that investigates spyware, wrote on X<\/a> that activists, journalists, and members of civil society \u201cwho might have their phone seized by authorities (protest, border, etc.) should consider switching to iPhone,\u201d because of these vulnerabilities.\u00a0<\/p>\n Referring to Cellebrite\u2019s tools, Donncha \u00d3 Cearbhaill, the head of Amnesty\u2019s Security Lab, told TechCrunch that \u201cthe far-reaching availability of such tools leaves me fearing that we are just scratching the surface of harms from these products.\u201d<\/p>\n Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\nContact Us<\/h4>\n