Signal CEO Moxie Marlinspike has hacked a cybersecurity research firm known as "Cellebrite," which was also known to be a partner of the police with regards to investigations and several online systems. Cellebrite was known to help police and other clients in breaking into phones by exploiting vulnerabilities, something used ironically against them.
The Signal CEO has been known for putting forward a foot against law enforcement agencies and the government regarding their stakes over the user and citizen data which was said to be a lot. Marlinspike has previously campaigned that the data should be private to users, and users alone, and this led to the establishment of Signal Messenger which featured encryption.
Ironically, Marlinspike has founded Signal with WhatsApp creator Brian Acton to create an application that promotes privacy and encryption for users against messaging apps that leave data open to different entities. The recent WhatsApp boycott has led to the utilization of encrypted messaging applications such as Signal Messenger, Telegram, and the like.
Signal CEO Hacks Cellebrite
In the recent blog post of Signal CEO via the company's official website, Moxie Marlinspike said that Cellebrite has brought itself up to have stakes on "digital intelligence" which it should not have. The CEO calls the act of Cellebrite as existing in the "grey" where they cannot be prosecuted for their acts, despite accessing user devices.
So what the CEO did was to explore the software of Cellebrite on his own, and here, he detailed the background and creation of the software that have helped to expose various people as directed by different nations. The Cellebrite software exploited were "UFED" which backs up a phone's data on a computer, and the Physical Analyzer which extracts it.
Allegedly, a package from Cellebrite fell on the hands of the CEO, to which he examined and performed tests to see the vulnerabilities present within the device. Marlinspike said that there was a loophole where users can inject a virus or malware in the software and tech, which would then exploit the user of Cellebrite's devices.
Marlinspike Aims to Prove a Point, Becomes a Legend
The recent hack carried out by Signal's CEO against Cellebrite was his way of exposing the different vulnerabilities that the Israeli cybersecurity research firm currently has on their devices. Marlinspike also said that there were violations that the software of Cellebrite has against Apple's Privacy Policy released with its latest operating system.
The Signal CEO's hack against Cellebrite has also exposed the cybersecurity firm's "attention to detail," particularly their lack thereof, to its security measures. Having been "easily" accessed by the CEO, it is shown how much they miss out on their firm's security, which Marlinspike said had been focused more on accessing other devices.
Related Article : Signal App TLS Proxy Vulnerability Gets Exposed by Researchers, Signal Bans Them Instead
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Written by Isaiah A.
