Researchers at the Kaspersky Lab found a four-year long campaign of hackers hijacking iPhones over several zero-day vulnerabilities.
Bad actors were able to use a backdoor, dubbed as the "Triangulation" exploit, for an undocumented hardware feature only Apple and its chip providers were supposed to know.
Kaspersky cybersecurity experts believe the hackers have "advanced technical capabilities" to be able to successfully gain deep access over iOS devices.
The issue first came to light in June after reports of thousands of people working inside diplomatic missions and embassies in Russia found their iPhones infected with malware.
It remains unclear what is the full scope of iPhone users affected by the exploit.
The news of more zero-day vulnerabilities comes out after Apple detected and released fixes against multiple exploits just a month ago.
How Does the Triangulation Exploit Work?
The Triangulation exploit uses a combination of hardware and software vulnerabilities, carrier networks, and third-party applications to gain backdoor access to target devices.
According to Kaspersky, bad actors are using iMessage texts to transmit and automatically install the malware even without the user taking any action.
Experts found that cyberattacks use four zero-day exploits in the iOS and a secret hardware function found in Macs, iPods, iPads, Apple TVs, and Apple Watches.
Apple has since provided a fix for both the hardware and software exploits over the last few months.
How to Protect Your iPhone from Cyberattack Exploits?
While these threats can have a serious impact on its users, Apple has since provided updates to resolve these issues.
It is recommended to regularly update iOS devices to keep up with Apple's latest security features, especially against bad actors.
If possible, upgrade the iPhone devices to more installations as older devices are more vulnerable to cyberattacks due to hardware exploits that a single patch cannot solve.
Always remain up-to-date when Apple announces security patches for its devices as it also provides advice on how to better protect your iPhone against specific attacks.
