Cellebrite zero-day exploit used to target phone of Serbian student activist

March 1, 2025 · Amnesty International Security Lab

URL: https://securitylab.amnesty.org/latest/2025/02/cellebrite-zero-day-exploit-used-to-target-phone-of-serbian-student-activist/

“Since the exploits identified in this research target core Linux kernel USB drivers, the vulnerability is not limited to a particular device or vendor and could impact over a billion Android devices.”

Serbian police used a Cellebrite zero-day chain to unlock a student activist’s phone, then tried to install an unknown app. The bugs sit in Linux USB drivers, so over a billion Android phones are exposed. Cellebrite cut off its Serbian customers only after Amnesty published twice.