Donncha Ó Cearbhaill
dcfd500112
* Add plugin update checking Report available updates to the installed MVT plugin packages in the startup banner, for plugins installed from a package index and for plugins installed directly from a repository. Repository installs pinned to a commit or a tag are never reported as outdated. MVT only prints the command which upgrades a plugin. Installing the update stays a deliberate choice of the analyst. The check runs at most once every twelve hours, and in between prints the findings of the latest check which still apply to what is installed. Nothing about the check can interrupt a running command: the parts of the suggested command come from package metadata and are quoted for the shell, the repository query refuses to prompt for credentials and never passes metadata as a git option, and a corrupt or stale cache is discarded rather than trusted. * Add a plugins command to list installed plugins and check updates Add a "plugins" command to the platform-neutral mvt command. "plugins list" shows every installed plugin package with its version, where it was installed from, how many forensic modules it contributes and which commands it adds. "plugins check-updates" checks for updates immediately, without waiting for the automatic check, and prints the command which upgrades a plugin instead of installing anything. It lives on mvt only. The packages it lists extend mvt-ios and mvt-android too, but auditing them is not the job of a command which analyses one platform, and the two platform CLIs should not carry commands which are not about an acquisition. The command is registered as a built-in, before any external command, so that an installed package cannot replace this audit surface.
5.3 KiB
Mobile Verification Toolkit
Important
We recently merged the "v3" branch. This introduced breaking changes. If you relied on mvt output in other scripts They might have broken. More details: https://github.com/mvt-project/mvt/issues/757
Mobile Verification Toolkit (MVT) is a collection of utilities to simplify and automate the process of gathering forensic traces helpful to identify a potential compromise of Android and iOS devices.
It has been developed and released by the Amnesty International Security Lab in July 2021 in the context of the Pegasus Project along with a technical forensic methodology. It continues to be maintained by Amnesty International and other contributors.
Note
MVT is a forensic research tool intended for technologists and investigators. It requires understanding digital forensics and using command-line tools. This is not intended for end-user self-assessment. If you are concerned with the security of your device please seek reputable expert assistance.
Indicators of Compromise
MVT supports using public indicators of compromise (IOCs) to scan mobile devices for potential traces of targeting or infection by known spyware campaigns. This includes IOCs published by Amnesty International and other research groups.
Warning
Public indicators of compromise are insufficient to determine that a device is "clean", and not targeted with a particular spyware tool. Reliance on public indicators alone can miss recent forensic traces and give a false sense of security.
Reliable and comprehensive digital forensic support and triage requires access to non-public indicators, research and threat intelligence.
Such support is available to civil society through Amnesty International's Security Lab or through our forensic partnership with Access Now’s Digital Security Helpline.
More information about using indicators of compromise with MVT is available in the documentation.
Installation
MVT can be installed from sources or from PyPI (you will need some dependencies, check the documentation):
pip3 install mvt
You can also install MVT from PyPI with uv. First, install uv:
curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh
Then install MVT as a command-line tool:
uv tool install mvt
For alternative installation options and known issues, please refer to the documentation as well as GitHub Issues.
Usage
MVT provides three commands: mvt-ios and mvt-android analyse acquisitions from devices of that platform, and mvt hosts what belongs to neither: version, completion, plugins and download-iocs (version and download-iocs remain available on the platform commands for now). Running mvt on its own shows the installed version, update notices and the available commands. Check out the documentation to learn how to use them!
Shell completion
MVT can generate a shell completion script for Bash, Zsh, and Fish which covers mvt, mvt-ios and mvt-android:
mvt completion
The command prints setup instructions by default. To generate the completion script directly, pass the shell name:
mvt completion bash
MVT only writes completion files or shell configuration when --install is passed. See the command completion documentation for details.
Plugin packages extend MVT with additional forensic modules, which run inside
the check-* commands, and with top-level commands on mvt, mvt-ios and
mvt-android. See the
development documentation for
writing and installing them, and the
custom CLI command documentation
for the entry points a package registers commands in.
License
The purpose of MVT is to facilitate the consensual forensic analysis of devices of those who might be targets of sophisticated mobile spyware attacks, especially members of civil society and marginalized communities. We do not want MVT to enable privacy violations of non-consenting individuals. In order to achieve this, MVT is released under its own license. Read more here.