Cyber: Citizen Lab Finds Cellebrite Tool Used On Kenyan Activist’s Phone...

New research from the Citizen Lab has found signs that Kenyan authorities used a commercial forensic extraction tool manufactured by Israeli company Cellebrite to break into a prominent dissident's phone, making it the latest case of abuse of the technology targeting civil society.

The interdisciplinary research unit at the University of Toronto's Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy said it found the indicators on a personal phone belonging to Boniface Mwangi, a Kenyan pro-democracy activist who has announced plans to run for president in 2027.

Specifically, it has emerged that Cellebrite's forensic extraction tools were used on his Samsung phone while it was in police custody following his arrest in July 2025.

The phone was returned to him nearly two months later, in September, at which point Mwangi found that the phone was no longer password-protected and could be unlocked without requiring a password. It's been assessed with high confidence that Cellebrite's technology was used on the phone on or around July 20 and July 21, 2025.

"The use of Cellebrite could have enabled the full extraction of all materials from Mwangi's device, including messages, private materials, personal files, financial information, passwords, and other sensitive information," the Citizen Lab said.

The latest findings follow a separate report released last month, in which the researchers said officials in Jordan likely used Cellebrite to extract information from the mobile phones of activists and human rights defenders who had been critical of Israel and spoke out in support of Palestinians in Gaza.

The devices were seized by Jordanian authorities during detentions, arrests, and interrogations, and subsequently returned to them. The documented incidents took place between late 2023 and mid-2025, the Citizen Lab said.

In response to the findings, a spokesperson for Cellebrite told The Guardian that the company's technology is used to "access private data only in accordance with legal due process or with appropriate consent to aid investigations legally after an event has occurred."

The two cases add to a growing body of evidence documenting the misuse of Cellebrite technology by government clients. It also reflects a broader ecosystem of surveillance abuses by various governments around the world to enable highly-targeted surveillance using mercenary spyware like Pegasus and Predator.

The development also coincides with another report from Amnesty International,

Source: The Hacker News