How to hack a phone: 7 common attack methods




The tech sector was expected to get another chance to introduce a safe computing platform with the rise of smartphones. It was said that these new gadgets, as opposed to glitchy PCs and exposed servers, were sealed down and malware-proof.

However, it turns out that people still use phones, which means that both people and computers will always have weak points. To give you an idea of the most typical methods attackers can employ to access the potent computers in your users' pockets, we spoke with a number of security experts. Hopefully, this will help you see possible weaknesses in a different light.

7 methods for phone hacking
Social manipulation
Malicious advertising
Phishing Malware
Concealing
Using Bluetooth to break in
Man-in-the-middle attacks on WiFi

 
1. The use of social engineering

Opening the door yourself is the simplest way for a hacker to gain access to any device. Of course, it's easier said than done, but the majority of social engineering attacks aim to do that.

Compared to PCs or servers, smartphone operating systems often feature more stringent security policies. Application code operates in a sandboxed manner, preventing it from gaining more privileges and taking over the device. However, there is a downside to the highly praised security architecture, which requires users to take action before code can access protected parts of the phone's operating system or storage: a lot of pop-up messages that most of us eventually learn to ignore. 

Mobile apps separate permissions to prevent rogue apps from having unrestricted access to your data, according to Catalino Vega III, Security Analyst at Kuma LLC. "You start to recognize the prompt: 'Would you like to grant this application access to your photos?'"

He goes on, "This actually adds just one step between the provisioning of that access to the application." "And most users will just grant the app access to whatever it is requesting because of the way the user experience has conditioned the acceptance of most prompts as a gate to accessing functionality." I believe that at some point, we may have all been guilty of this.
  1. Malvertising

Malvertising, or malicious advertising, is a significant method for delivering deceptive dialog boxes. These harmful ads leverage the mobile advertising ecosystem’s infrastructure and can appear in a browser or within an app. The objective is to entice the user to click on the ad, often using alerts or warnings to provoke an immediate reaction.

An example of this is the game Durak, which manipulated users into disabling security features on their Android phones and installing malicious applications. Despite being available on the official Google Play marketplace, Durak was far from safe. In fact, 67% of all malicious apps originate from the Google Play store, while only 10% come from alternative third-party markets. This highlights the limitations of relying on user reviews for app safety. In contrast, Apple’s rigorous inspection of every app on its store reduces the number of available apps but significantly decreases the presence of malicious ones.

  1. Smishing

Smishing, or SMS phishing, is another method attackers use to present victims with a clickable link. This technique involves various social engineering tactics and can affect anyone, regardless of their status.

Cybercriminals use SMS phishing in multiple ways, depending on their goals. If they aim to install malware on a device, they usually attach a file to a message and attempt to persuade the user to download it. For instance, they might impersonate a trusted figure, such as an employer, asking an employee to review an attached document. This tactic can catch busy and unsuspecting victims off guard. In some cases, hackers can push a malicious file onto a phone without user consent, provided the user clicks the link

4.Malware

If a hacker fails to trick a user into clicking a button and inadvertently lowering their phone’s security barriers, they might target someone who has already done so by jailbreaking their phone. While jailbreaking allows users to customize their device and install apps from unofficial sources, it inherently weakens the strict security measures that protect smartphones.

Hackers create apps, such as free VPNs, that appeal to users with the intention of downloading malware onto their devices. Once these malicious apps are installed, they can detect if a device has been rooted or jailbroken. If it has, they can steal personally identifiable information and other sensitive data. A jailbroken device’s operating system becomes compromised, providing easy access to passwords, chats, and other input data, such as banking or payment information.

5.Pretexting

Lastly, if a user refuses to relinquish control of their device, an attacker might bypass them and target their mobile provider. This tactic was infamously used in the mid-2000s British media scandal, where tabloids employed “blagging” techniques to access the mobile voicemail boxes of celebrities and crime victims

6.Breaking in via Bluetooth

Hackers can exploit the Bluetooth connection, a weak spot for smartphones, to breach phones without requiring the user to give up permissions. This method is common as many people leave their Bluetooth connection on. If a Bluetooth connection is unregulated, hackers can get close to your smartphone and infiltrate it without notice

7.Man-in-the-middle Wi-Fi attacks

Man-in-the-middle Wi-Fi attacks are another potential wireless attack vector. Many people tend to connect their smartphones to freely available public Wi-Fi, which can lead to trouble as hackers can intercept the connection and infiltrate the phone. By intercepting communications, hackers can gather a wealth of information without ever taking control of the user’s phone

What happens after they’ve broken in?

Once an attacker has gained a foothold on a smartphone using one of the techniques outlined above, they find themselves in a very different environment from a PC or server. While smartphone operating systems are ultimately derived from Unix-like systems, the kernels for iOS and Android are vastly different from anything that would resemble their Unix base, making shared exploits almost impossible

However, it’s not impossible. Exploits of that type do exist. Privilege escalation would be key to this process and working around inbuilt safety mechanisms would be challenging. But any attacker with the ability to run code on a user’s device is doing just that – running code on a user’s device. So, if they’re smart enough, they could make that device do whatever they please

A surprising amount of sensitive data is accessible to attackers who gain a foothold on a device. Data stores such as SQLite get created by installed apps and could contain everything from web request and response content to potentially sensitive information and cookies. Common weaknesses observed in both iOS and Android include caching of application data within memory (such as authentication credentials), as well as persistence of thumbnails or snapshots of the running application, which could inadvertently store sensitive information on the device. Sensitive information, most often left unencrypted, is found in abundance within browser cookie values, crash files, preference files, and web cache content created in easy-to-read formats stored right on the device

The very tools created for development purposes are what makes it easier for an attacker to extract, interact with, or even modify this kind of data, such as abd on Android or iExplorer or plutil on iOS. Standard utilities can be used for the examination of any database files copied from the device, and if we run into the need to decrypt

Hacking a smartphone is not as straightforward as it may seem. Most users do not jailbreak their phones, click on smishing links, or grant enhanced privileges to suspicious applications. Even when hackers manage to gain access to a device, they are often thwarted by the built-in security measures of iOS and Android.

The key to hacking a smartphone lies more in persistence than in any specific technique. Attackers create highly repeatable and automated models that scrutinize every aspect of a mobile app or a new operating system version in hopes of finding a vulnerability. Once they discover an exploitable weakness, they attempt to leverage it as quickly as possible before a fix is released.

If an individual can’t figure out how to breach a cell phone, they might seek help from others. Information sharing among cybercriminals typically occurs on the dark web or in groups on encrypted chat platforms like Telegram. Larger groups, especially those backed by nation-states, are encouraged to share code and exploits among each other, hoping that collective efforts will lead to more successful malicious campaigns. It’s clear that those on the side of cybersecurity need to share intelligence as well, given the challenges they face.