MICHIGAN: A powerful software exploit capable of penetrating and stealing information from potentially hundreds of millions of Apple iPhones was planted on dozens of websites in Ukraine in recent weeks, researchers said on Wednesday.

The discovery marks the second time this month that researchers have fou­nd spy­­ware targeting iPhones and other Apple devices.

Together, the two hacking tools show that the market for sophisticated malware capable of stealing data and cryptocurrency wallet information is flourishing, researchers said.

Researchers with cyber firm Lookout, mobile security firm iVerify and Alphabet’s Google published coordinated analyses of the malware they dubbed Darksword.

On March 3, Google and iVerify revealed a separate powerful iPhone spyware called “Coruna”. Re­­searchers found Darks­word hosted on the same servers.

“There’s now a verified pipeline of recent exploits that have ended up in the hands of potentially criminal entities with a financial focus,” said Justin Albrecht, principal researcher with Lookout.

According to iVerify and Lookout, researchers discovered the malware being delivered to iPhone users running iOS versions 18.4 to 18.6.2 who visited one of dozens of Ukrainian websites. Apple released those versions between March and August 2025.

It’s not clear how many iPhones are vulnerable to Darksword attacks, the researchers said.

Apple has released multiple fixes for the underlying bugs attackers used to make Darksword.

Nevertheless, many people don’t install iPhone updates, and an estimated 220 million to 270m iPhones still run exposed iOS versions, according to iVerify and Lookout, which based the figures on public estimates. Apple did not respond to a request for comment. Researchers said they discovered the vulnerabilities because of sloppy security mistakes not common in state-linked iPhone hacking.

Published in Dawn, March 19th, 2026