What Pegasus Is
Pegasus is both an implant and the operator system around it. NSO sells an end-to-end system — exploit research, infection vectors, an anonymizing transmission network, and a browser dashboard installed at the customer site.
Product vs. company
Pegasus is the spyware. NSO Group is the company that builds and sells it. NSO sells an end-to-end system: exploit research, infection vectors, an anonymizing transmission network (the Pegasus Anonymizing Transmission Network, or PATN), and a browser dashboard installed at the customer site.
Covert vs. Triggered
Internal product language from the WhatsApp case (Amnesty Security Lab, 16 July 2026, citing ECF filings) distinguishes:
- Covert — zero-click vectors, requiring no target action.
- Triggered — one-click vectors, requiring the target to interact.
- Network injection and physical access as further delivery methods.
The customer claim — and the abuse record
NSO says its customers are government law-enforcement and intelligence agencies only, and that customers are contractually barred from targeting civil society.
Journalists, activists, opposition figures, lawyers, and relatives of targets appear repeatedly in forensic work by Citizen Lab, Amnesty, and the Pegasus Project consortium.
Do not treat NSO marketing claims as fact. This archive places them beside forensic findings and labels each accordingly.
