New trojan that gets to a PC from a smartphone detected |
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Fri, 23 Sep 2005 19:05
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New York: Internet security experts have detected a new trojan that infects smartphones using the Symbian platform and then attempts to attack PCs.
Anti-virus program maker F-Secure, which reported the existence of the trojan -- called Sybos/Cardtrap.A -- said it tries to infect the smartphone user's PCs too. It does so by copying two Windows viruses -- Win32/Padobot.Z and Win32/Rays -- to the phone's memory card and then the PCs when the memory card is plugged in.
The creators of Cardtrap expect that the viruses would launch automatically when the smartphone user connects the storage card to the PC. Fortunately, Windows does not generally support auto-run from a memory card. This will mean that the trojan cannot automatically get transferred into a PC. However, in some cases, memory cards are falsely recognised by the PC as CD-ROM drives, which would trick the auto-run feature into running the file.
F-Secure says that the Rays virus is more malicious as it is copied with the name SYSTEM.EXE, and carry the same icon as system folders so that users may inadvertently click on it.
Virus experts said the trojan disguises itself as a pirated mobile phone game when downloaded from the web. It is described as the first virus program that travels from a phone to a PC. The threat from this virus is considered low level because it requires user interaction and fails to launch on a number of Windows systems, including XP, but there is scope for smart virus writers to refine and design it for an easy launch from a mobile phone to a PC.
Virus infection of mobile phones has been on the rise in the recent past. There are cases of Cabir worm, which uses Bluetooth connections to spread between Symbian-based phones and Commwarrior, which too spread via Bluetooth or MMS messages.
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