A Possible US Government iPhone-Hacking Toolkit Is Now in the Hands of Foreign Spies and Criminals

[LiberalArkie]

MAR 3, 2026

A highly sophisticated set of iPhone hijacking techniques has likely infected tens of thousands of phones or more. Clues suggest it was originally built for the US government.

AN IPHONE-HACKING TECHNIQUE used in the wild to indiscriminately hijack the devices of any iOS user who merely visits a website represents a rare and shocking event in the cybersecurity world. Now one powerful hacking toolkit at the center of multiple mass iPhone exploitation campaigns has taken an even rarer and more disturbing path: It appears to have traveled from the hands of Russian spies who used it to target Ukrainians to a cybercriminal operation designed to steal cryptocurrency from Chinese-speaking victims—and some clues suggest it may have been originally created by a US contractor and sold to the American government.

Security researchers at Google on Tuesday released a report describing what they're calling “Coruna,” a highly sophisticated iPhone hacking toolkit that includes five complete hacking techniques capable of bypassing all the defenses of an iPhone to silently install malware on a device when it visits a website containing the exploitation code. In total, Coruna takes advantage of 23 distinct vulnerabilities in iOS, a rare collection of hacking components that suggests it was created by a well-resourced, likely state-sponsored group of hackers.

In fact, Google traces components of Coruna to hacking techniques it spotted in use in February of last year and attributed to what it describes only as a “customer of a surveillance company.” Then, five months later, Google says a more complete version of Coruna reappeared in what appears to have been an espionage campaign carried out by a suspected Russian spy group, which hid the hacking code in a common visitor-counting component of Ukrainian websites. Finally, Google spotted Coruna in use yet again in what seems to have been a purely profit-focused hacking campaign, infecting Chinese-language crypto and gambling sites to deliver malware that steals victims’ cryptocurrency.

Conspicuously absent from Google's report is any mention of who the original surveillance company “customer” that deployed Coruna may have been. But the mobile security company iVerify, which also analyzed a version of Coruna it obtained from one of the infected Chinese sites, suggests the code may well have started life as a hacking kit built for or purchased by the US government. Google and iVerify both note that Coruna contains multiple components previously used in a hacking operation known as “Triangulation” that was discovered targeting Russian cybersecurity firm Kaspersky in 2023, which the Russian government claimed was the work of the NSA. (The US government didn’t respond to Russia’s claim.)

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https://www.wired.com/story/coruna-iphone-hacking-toolkit-us-government/#intcid=_wired-verso-hp-trending_c8690fa2-0af9-45c3-8e06-618b11367320_popular4-2

[hlthe2b]

1. I can't access the entire article: Is there ANYTHING to be DONE? Is anyone at APPLE addressing?

I can't believe Tech writers that only present a massive problem without addressing what can be done to address it. If there is nothing currently, then at least say THAT!

[herding cats]

2. Update your iOS and you're golden.

It only impacts phones running iOS versions between 13.0 and 17.2.1.

[ananda]

3. I have 26.3. Is that safe?

TIA

[herding cats]

5. It is.

You're absolutely safe from this particular exploit.

[hlthe2b]

4. Thank you...

I certainly do "religiously"...

[herding cats]

6. You're welcome.

I'm the same way about updating. It's better to be safe than sorry.