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Hacker Leaks Tools Stolen From Cellebrite

The hacker who recently breached the systems of Israel-based mobile forensics company Cellebrite leaked some tools on Thursday and promised to dump more of the stolen data in the future.

The hacker who recently breached the systems of Israel-based mobile forensics company Cellebrite leaked some tools on Thursday and promised to dump more of the stolen data in the future.

While its investigation is still ongoing, Cellebrite has confirmed that someone had gained unauthorized access to its systems, stealing roughly 900 Gb of data.

According to the company, most of the data represents logs from its end-user licensing system my.Cellebrite and other unimportant files, such as 350 Gb of offline world map backups.

The compromised data does include customer contact information from a my.Cellebrite backup, but the company says “full passwords” or payment information have not been obtained – although it has admitted that some password hashes have been stolen.

Cellebrite also admitted that the hacker gained access to information on technical support inquiries, but claims the exposed files are not related to open support cases.

“Contrary to some erroneous reports, the attack did not impact any Cellebrite intellectual property related to the delivery of Cellebrite Forensic products and services, such as proprietary source code,” the company stated. “There is no increased risk to Cellebrite Forensic customers as a result of normal, ongoing use of Cellebrite UFED software and hardware, including routine software updates.”

In an effort to prove that he had stolen much more than just basic contact information, the hacker leaked what he claims to be “exploits” for iOS, Android and BlackBerry devices.

The download links no longer work, but Vice’s Motherboard learned from forensics expert Jonathan Zdziarski that many of the leaked iOS-related files appear to be widely available tools from the jailbreaking community. Zdziarski said he would not call the leaked files “exploits.”

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In a message posted on Pastebin, the hacker admitted that the Apple tools are widely available, but claimed that the BlackBerry tools are “worth a look at.”

Cellebrite told Motherboard that the tools leaked this week are part of the distribution package of its application, but reiterated that source code was not compromised.

The hacker said he also plans on leaking what he describes as “a sample of files retrieved via the weaponized Cellebrite update service deployed on MS Windows based devices and desktops (SYSTEM privs) within the customer infrastructure.”

Related: Israeli Firm Can Steal Phone Data in Seconds

Written By

Eduard Kovacs (@EduardKovacs) is a managing editor at SecurityWeek. He worked as a high school IT teacher for two years before starting a career in journalism as Softpedia’s security news reporter. Eduard holds a bachelor’s degree in industrial informatics and a master’s degree in computer techniques applied in electrical engineering.

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