[HN Gopher] New details on commercial spyware vendor Variston
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       New details on commercial spyware vendor Variston
        
       Author : andrew-ld
       Score  : 32 points
       Date   : 2022-11-30 20:26 UTC (2 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (blog.google)
 (TXT) w3m dump (blog.google)
        
       | zelon88 wrote:
       | > As is currently normal for internally found Chrome bugs, no CVE
       | was assigned.
       | 
       | Why I don't care about or trust anything from Google TAG, PZ, or
       | any other "security blog" that Google publishes.
       | 
       | They have no problems copping CVEs on competitors like Mozilla,
       | Microsoft, or Apple.... but squirrel away zero days on their own
       | products for the better part of a year or more and then quietly
       | publish blog posts without actually filing for a CVE.
        
       | soci wrote:
       | "Variston IT" EBITDA was between 6M to 15M EUR in 2021 [1][2].
       | Interesting numbers from a completely unknown tech company in
       | Barcelona whatsoever.
       | 
       | [1] https://www.iberinform.es/empresa/8097556/variston-
       | informati....
       | 
       | [2] P&L and Balances are public data in Spain, but usually behind
       | paywalls. Sometimes the financial data without the paywall just
       | shows the order of magnitude, like in this specific case.
        
       | itake wrote:
       | My friend works there! This is the most I have heard about his
       | work since he was so secretive.
        
         | kingforaday wrote:
         | At Variston IT or Google/TAG? :)
        
       | shkkmo wrote:
       | > TAG became aware of the Heliconia framework when Google
       | received an anonymous submission to the Chrome bug reporting
       | program. The submitter filed three bugs, each with instructions
       | and an archive that contained source code. They used unique names
       | in the bug reports including, "Heliconia Noise," "Heliconia Soft"
       | and "Files." TAG analyzed the submissions and found they
       | contained frameworks for deploying exploits in the wild and a
       | script in the source code included clues pointing to the possible
       | developer of the exploitation frameworks, Variston IT.
       | 
       | Does that mean that this was likely an internal whistleblower at
       | Variston since the bug reports had internal build tools?
        
         | willcipriano wrote:
         | Considering it's a malware vendor, I'd put my money on they
         | ship it with the internal build tools by accident, mistakes
         | like that are pretty typical in that space.
        
           | shkkmo wrote:
           | Could be, but the three separate reports/leaks make that seem
           | unlikely to me. It could also the a hacker that compromised
           | the company to obtain the tools.
        
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       (page generated 2022-11-30 23:00 UTC)