Powerful iPhone hacking tools once used by governments now in hands of criminals

Security experts say a suite of powerful iPhone hacking tools that was reportedly originally built for a government agency is now being used by criminals. 

The kit, which has been dubbed Coruna, was identified by Google Threat Intelligence Group (GTIG).

According to reports, Coruna was originally designed and built to be used by a ‘government customer’. 

However, it has since been leaked and is now in the hands of criminals, and it could be used to hack thousands of iPhones.

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The Coruna hacking tools use something called a ‘watering hole’ attack

In a blog post earlier this week, GTIG said it had followed the Coruna exploit kit since early 2025. 

Google said that in February last year, it became aware of Coruna being used by ‘a customer of a surveillance company’.

But months later, the same kit was being used by a ‘suspected Russian espionage group’ targeting Ukrainian users. 

It then popped up again in China, where it was used in ‘watering hole attacks’ to steal cryptocurrency and other sensitive data from people online. 

A watering hole attack is a form of cyberattack that targets groups of users by infecting sites they commonly visit with malware.

Unsuspecting users then go onto the site, and their device is silently infected by the malware. 

In the case of Coruna, it was used on cryptocurrency sites and was found to be effective on almost all crypto wallets, according to security firm iVerify. 

Here’s how you can prevent iPhone hacking attacks

While this all sounds scary, there are ways to protect yourself. 

Coruna is only effective on iPhones running iOS version 13.0, which was released in September 2019, up to version 17.2.1, which launched in December 2023. 

So, if you’re running the latest version of iOS, you’ll be fine. 

“The Coruna exploit kit is not effective against the latest version of iOS, and iPhone users are strongly urged to update their devices to the latest version of iOS,” Google said. 

“In instances where an update is not possible, it is recommended that Lockdown Mode be enabled for enhanced security.”

The whole thing is a good reminder to keep your phone’s operating system up to date, as updated versions often come with additional security patches and fixes. 

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