A bill that would allow police in France to spy on suspects by remotely activating cameras, microphone including GPS of their phones has been passed.
A few comments, they don’t need to have a Signal vulnerability, just an OS vulnerability since that would allow access to decrypted Signal messages. In the past, there have been zero click SMS and iMessage vulnerabilities. There have also been web vulnerabilities.
The attacks are not sent at scale to avoid detection. They are used on specific dissidents and journalists.
You need to exploit an OS vulnerability or use suitable baseband processor as a backdoor, facilitated by the cellular operator. To exploit the OS or an a service on it you need a network connection. You can’t inject through an ad if there is no browser or email if there is no client.
Yes, you can spearphish but this can’t mass-target French mobile users as the article seems to claim. France isn’t North Korea, not just yet.