iMazing Pegasus detects malware easily and for free

Pegasus, the NSO group’s malware used by rogue states to spy on journalists and politicians, could be installed without user intervention (read: Pegasus spy malware still more effective and used) If the software is not targeted at the general public, it is possible to check that their smartphone has not been infected using a tool developed by security researchers at Amnesty International, the Mobile Verification Toolkit (MVT).

MVT has the merits of existing, but using it for the average user is complicated and requires you to get your hands dirty. Not everyone will be comfortable testing this solution. This is where iMazing comes in: the backup is in version 2.14 of the software. Integrated MVT detection tool.

iMazing license not required to purchase (from 29.99 €) to take advantage of this new function, which is completely free in the trial version (it is not limited in time). after download and installation of iMazing, just click on continue testing, connect iPhone to Mac or run a backup scan, then select Options detect spyware.

After a panel of explanations translated into French, the software will offer to download the Amnesty reference files (we can even load them locally if we have them), then to save the result analysis in CVS or Excel format Indicate the path. It will also be necessary to accept a similar license for use for the MVT (in this case the open source license Mozilla v2.0).

The analysis requires little computation time, requiring the creation of a backup of the contents of the smartphone first. Once the operation is complete, iMazing displays a window indicating the presence or not of Pegasus. The results can be further analyzed in the Annex Report. Keep in mind that the software only detects, does not remove, malware. The editor provides a more complete user manual to consult on Clue.

Imaging’s detection tool goes further into analysis than MVT, in that the software can find encrypted backups without actually decrypting the entire package; Copies of decrypted files are deleted immediately after scanning. In contrast, iMazing only supports iOS, not Android, and files from jailbroken devices are not compatible with other limitations.