Using An Exploit Chain, Serbian Police Hack A Protester's Phone.

An exploit chain and a Cellebrite mobile "Information Extraction" device are being used by Serbian law enforcement to target dissidents, most recently a Serbian student activist phone. In a study released on Friday, Amnesty International claimed that Serbian authorities used Zero-day exploit chain that targeted Android USB drivers to compromise a student Protester's mobile device. According to the results, Serbia is a "digital prison," with officials using NoviSpy Spyware to infect Cellebrite's Flagship Universal Forensic Extraction Device (UFED) devices in order to follow and monitor people, including activists and journalist.

According to a separate, previous assessment by the human rights organization, "Serbian authorities have deployed surveillance technology and digital repression tactics as instruments of wider state control and repression directed against civil society."

MONITORING DISSENSION USING SPYWARE

The results once again highlight the possibility for authorities to exploit technology to advance violations of human rights against political opponents, journalist, dissenters, and others. In addition to "at least two further cases of misuse of Cellebrite against civil society" that are not covered in the report, law enforcement officials in this case compromised the activist's phone by using Cellebrite's product with an exploit chain, even though this is commonly observed with products like commercial spyware.

Cellebrite maintains that it's devices, which are used to retrieve data from mobile phones by organizations including law enforcement and Governments, are supplied under stringent licensing guidelines and are meant for legitimate uses. However, Amnesty International stated in it's December report that "privacy international and access now have extensively documented weakness in Cellebrite's human rights due to diligence policies, resulting in sales of Cellebrite to Governments with spotty human rights track record and where there is a high risk that such products could be used to target civil society."

According to Amnesty International, the 23-year-old student activist ( whom it named "Vedran" for privacy reasons ) was "forced" into a car by seven plain clothes men on December 25 while he was at a demonstration. He was taken to a police station when he refused to show them his phone, a Samsung Galaxy A32. " Vedran informed Amnesty International that he turned off his phone and gave it to the authorities as soon as he arrived at the police station, which was about 6:30 P.M local time. Four guys in civilian clothes who never identified themselves excorted him to a first floor office where he was interrogated for the next six hours, according to the report. Around 12:45 A.M, he received his phone back, it was turned off.

" The forensic analysis found clear evidence of exploitation, which Amnesty International can confidently attribute to the use of Cellebrite's UFED product," stated the organization. " The logs also show that the Cellebrite product enabled the authorities to successfully gain privileged root access to the phone and to unlock the device," alongside " clear evidence of a Cellebrite USB exploit chain."