An Israeli group sold a tool to hack into Microsoft Windows, Microsoft and technology human rights group Citizen Lab said on Thursday, shedding light on the growing business of finding and selling tools to hack widely used software.
The hacking tool vendor, named Candiru, created and sold a software exploit that can penetrate Windows, one of the many intelligence products sold by a secretive industry that finds flaws in common software platforms for their clients, a report by citizen lab.
Technical analysis by security researchers details how Candiru’s hacking tool spread around the globe to numerous unnamed customers. Candiru has likely sold spying tools to governments in the Middle East and Asia, according to the cybersecurity research group citizen lab.
The reports come amid roiling concern about the proliferation of cyber weapons once limited to a handful of nations that are now becoming far more widespread. The firm which goes by the name Candiru is part of a burgeoning industry of largely unregulated spyware companies that sell snooping technology to government intelligence services and law enforcement agencies often with questionable human rights records.
“Candiru’s growing presence, and the use of its surveillance technology against global civil society, is a potent reminder that the mercenary spyware industry contains many players and is prone to widespread abuse,” Citizen Lab said in its report
“Sourgum generally sells cyberweapons that enable its customers, often government agencies around the world, to hack into their targets’ computers, phones, network infrastructure, and internet-connected devices,” Microsoft wrote in a blog post. “These agencies then choose who to target and run the actual operations themselves.”
Microsoft fixed the discovered flaws on Tuesday through a software update. Microsoft did not directly attribute the exploits of Candiru. Instead referring to it as “Israel-based private sector offensive actor” under the code name Sourgum.
