These results mean that most users today are safe from these threats, which confirms private conversations that this reporter had with mobile security experts, who said that only a handful of mobile providers across the world ship SIM cards with the two apps, mostly located in the MENA, Eastern Europe, and Latin America regions. Most of the messages targeted users in Latin and South America.We received reports from 8 users about 29 OTA SMS targeting the applet.In total, 9.1% of tested SIM cards were vulnerable to attacks against either or WIBįurthermore, data from more than 500,000 SnoopSnitch users revealed that only a very small number of users received OTA SMS messages, like the ones needed to exploit Simjacker and WIBattack.
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The second is an Android app that runs on rooted devices with Qualcomm chipsets and which can test smartphones for various SIM, mobile network, and OS security flaws.
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The first is a desktop app that users can install and test their SIM cards for security flaws. The SRLabs team, a well-known expert in the field of mobile and telco security, previously developed two apps named SIMTester and SnoopSnitch. They estimated the number of devices running SIM cards with a WIB app at "hundreds of millions." Scary numbers don't hold waterīut the estimations that Simjacker and WIBattack impact hundreds of millions of SIM cards may not be accurate, according to a report ZDNet received this week from SRLabs. Researchers said they discovered the WIBattack back in 2015 when they also found the Simjacker attack (which they called but did no go pubic with their findings.
If used by a skilled attacker, they can allow a threat actor to track a victim's location or start phone calls and listen to nearby conversations. Just like the Simjacker attack, Ginno Security Labs researchers say this attack vector can also be abused to track users. In a report published last weekend, security researchers from Ginno Security Labs said that the WIB app was also vulnerable to similar attacks, although they were not aware of any attacks. In a report released earlier this month, AdaptiveMobile said it discovered that a "private company that works with governments" was using rogue commands sent to Browser apps running on SIM cards to track individuals. The purpose of these apps is to allow remote management for customer devices and their mobile subscriptions. Mainly, Simjacker runs commands against the Browser app, while WIBattack sends commands to the Wireless Internet Browser (WIB) app.īoth are Java applets that mobile telcos install on SIM cards they provide to their customers. This new attack, named WIBattack, is identical to Simjacker, an attack disclosed at the start of the month by mobile security firm AdaptiveMobile.īoth attacks work in the same way, and they grant access to similar commands, with the exception that they target different apps running on the SIM cards. 10 dangerous app vulnerabilities to watch out for (free PDF).