“It’s pretty incredible, and at the same time, pretty terrifying.”
NSO sent a fake GIF that was really a PDF with a JBIG2 stream, a 1990s scanner codec. Inside it, 70,000 compression commands build a tiny computer out of logic gates, then use it to take over the phone. The target never taps anything. Citizen Lab only caught it because it hit a Saudi activist. NSO sells this to governments, and the only defense is not owning a phone.