Apple Issues New Spyware Alerts for French Officials and Journalists

Apple has issued a new round of spyware attack alerts to certain users in France, with the identified targets including journalists, lawyers, activists, politicians, senior officials, and members of the country’s Strategic Sectors Committee. According to CERT-FR, this marks the third spyware alert issued by Apple in 2025, following earlier warnings on March 5, April 29, and June 25. The article notes that such campaigns often employ zero-day vulnerabilities and may require no user interaction.

Receiving an Apple notification signifies the user has already been marked as a target, and Apple only sends these warnings when it has concrete evidence of activity. It also mentions that in August 2025 Apple issued emergency security updates to patch CVE-2025-43300 and CVE-2025-55177, with the recent warning possibly linked to these vulnerabilities. Apple advises users who receive these notifications to enable Lockdown Mode to add encryption layers and counter sophisticated spyware campaigns.