“Eden/Heaven/Hummingbird R.I.P. announcement,” read a message sent to NSO employees.
The court documents show that NSO’s Heaven exploit was active before 2018, and was designed to direct target WhatsApp devices into communicating with a malicious WhatsApp relay server controlled by NSO.
After WhatsApp patched its systems against NSO’s Heaven exploit, NSO developed a new exploit called “Eden,” which an NSO employee quoted by the court documents said, “need[ed] to go through WhatsApp relay servers,” which the Heaven exploit had sought to avoid. It was the use of the Eden exploit that led to WhatsApp filing its lawsuit against NSO, according to a deposition by another NSO employee.