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Worm Developed for Nokia Series-60 Phones
Tuxedo Jack writes "It had to happen. The first worm designed specifically for cellular phones has been developed, and Cabir appears to be a way of effectively killing Nokia Series-60 cellular phones via shortening the battery life due to scanning for nearby Bluetooth devices and propagating itself. This still relies on a user to open it, so hopefully that won't be many, and those that do must use a file manager to find and kill the worm. At least it isn't a dialer!"
Is a virus that spreads via phone to computer or vice versa possible?
This guy is way out there
I would love to see a simpler phone without features like Bluetooth. This would eliminate some of this out of the box. I may be in the minority, but all I need to do on my cell phone is make phone calls.
Don't be a looter...and yes, I know that it's spelled with an "A" instead of an "E".
Famous last words...
will probably be, "press 'select' to see if you are the WINNER of our 10,000 giveaway sweepstakes"
I would agree that silently spreading could work to it's advantage. If you combine the two concepts with a time-bomb that causes the code to execute at a certain future date it could be even more of a problem. Every cell tower everywhere overloaded with messaging and calls on April 1st, 2005 for example.
Urge to post... fading... fading... RISING!... fading... fading... gone.
Damn just one more thing I have to purchase with my phone subscription. A monthly charge for cell phone virus definitions for my WAP NAV
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Unscrupulous types will drive around the suburbs with bluetooth transmitters on the top of honda civics and old hiaces, broadcasting viagra apps into our phones while we eat.
E-marketers will place transmitters everywhere, including bins, bus seats and on signs in the middle of the desert so our phones never stop telling us about products that improve our lives.
We will all begin to recieve mysterious bills for calls we made to a premium rate talking clock number while we were asleep.
Our phones will broadcast our every move and spoken word to marketing agencies, who will happily charge us for a map of the route we took to work that morning, or for telling how good our
eloqution is.
Bluetooth porn spam will being blaring out of everyones mobile the minute that slightly dazed looking yuppie walks into the room with his brand new phone that he uses for browsing on the net and email and chat and buying stuff and everything!!!
This situation(commencing next week) will continue without pause, until, faced with users mass binning their mobiles, symbian forcefully create their own virus to patch the phone on the fly as no-one , apart from geeks, will have bothered to delete the patch.
You doubt me!?! You doubt my powers of foresight?!!
So do I, but I'm sticking with my series 40 phone just in case.
May the Maths Be with you!
Most people buy bluetooth phones and don't know what to use it for, just that it's another thing they have. (I have a Bluetooth phone, but only because my Powerbook also has bluetooth and can sync wirelessly. Otherwise I keep it turned off.)
Most people really just want a phone that can hold contacts, get really great reception, and lasts a while between charges. (And, outside the US, send and recieve text messages easily.) Why not focus on these features? The same reason most car commercials are about performance and showing off instead of reliability and gas mileage; people are more convinced by flash than substance.
Repeat after me: Something that has a lot of functions doesn't do any of those things as well as a dedicated piece of equipment. (PCs are a special case; software isn't.) Just like the only unitasker in your kitchen should be a fire extinguisher, the only multitasker in your geek lair should be your PC.
I'm in the hole of the broadband donut.
What really will happen is this: some day somebody develops a killer application based on Bluetooth, something that implies fun. Handset manufacturers will happily add it to their products. Their usability tests will yield that Bluetooth must be enabled out of the box, or most users won't even notice the new killer app. So they will not only enable Bluetooth by default, but also firmly believe they have to do it this way.
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In the symantec article (I could access it) it is suggested : "Turn off and remove unneeded services." I can't help laugh. Buy a blue-tooth enabled mobile phone, and turn off blue tooth stuff as soon as you have it out of the box... Or pay to have something removing the stuff you paid to get.
Hum... may I suggest not ot get such a mobile phone ?
By the way, turning off what I don't need, is something I do with my car, my house, my computer... That is why I have no viruses, no slow down, no whatever I don't want. It's a kind of brake-through: don't use what what you don't need, you'll have less problemes. Ho peoples, I am in great shape today !
Do not answer calls from people you don't know. :D
Privacy is terrorism.
Have you tried your local Goodwill or Salvation Army?
Even garage sales have old phones...
This post is half-funny, and half-sad. Phones are getting more feature-packed every year. Where I work, I am not allowed to have any sort of camera, for security reasons. When all phones have camreas, no phones will be allowed in my office. Sad, but true.
"-1 Troll" is the apparently the same as "-1 I disagree with you."
Fortunately, people are discarding their old mobile phones, and buying new ones every six months. At least, users aren't able to save application programs in SIM card memory. I always wonder why thin client mobile phones (where everything is stored on a server, rather than on the phone itself) haven't taken off.
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I have a T730 with Verizon and the phone isn't KISS at all, it's pretty complicated, capable of downloading and running software.
What bothers me is the *fake* simplicity and lockout. Why can't I just hook this phone to my PC with the USB cable and access the filesystem, transfering programs, ringtones, images and so on to the phone? With the phone software I can get some address book sync (it's such a shitty package, I regret buying it).
Of course, I know it's all about Verizon making money off of downloads, but its such bullshit selling a "closed" device with fake simplicity. Yes, I know I can get warez copies of Moto phone tools, but how much harder would it be to make the phone show up as a USB storage device? The addressbook as a CSV file? A directory each for tones and images?
just code it like, right now.
it's possible.
however, for better results don't use bluetooth as the medium it transmits itself.. this now published 'worm'/trojan needs USER INTERACTION for it to spread so it is NOT REALLY EFFECTIVE. it's just shitload of hot air by some antivir companies at this point.
however, for faster spreading to idiots just put the virus online with names like "porno-game.sis" "latest-ngage-warez.sis" and alike. some suckers will download it anyways.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
EPOC.Cabir is a proof-of-concept worm that replicates on Nokia Series 60 phones.
Uh, talk about coding your way to job security?Its amazing how many people do have their phones set to be discoverable. There was a survey about it and how many men verus women are guilty here: PDF
What legal recourse would there be?
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I was thinking the same thing, as you enter the theater Bluetooth turns your phone to vibrate only, and as you leave it checks to see if it was turned off via Bluetooth and re-enables the previous setting.
Great idea that probably won't ever take off due to security concerns.
People in cars cause accidents....accidents in cars cause people
i find this virus very interesting in that there is a need for physical proximity in order for the virus to propagate, similar to real-world viruses. in the future, will these type of virus infections be limited to certain geographical areas depending on the initial "ignition" point, or will the infection vectors be more like real-life virus outbreaks? (imaging starting an infection a new york subway versus smalltown, usa)
This is my original attempt to post this story, it got rejected, but now that someone else brought it up, I will post my version. Primarily because there are some cool links in it that should be seen:
Yesterday InfoWorld reported a new first for viruses. Believed to be the work of international group 29a, Cabir is the first worm to infect mobile phones! Cabir is a proof of concept worm infecting Symbian mobile phone operating system by Symbian Ltd, used by Nokia. Cabir does not include a malicious payload.
All it would have to do is send a 5 cent [single character] text message every 5 minutes a day, then immediately delete it from the 'outbox'. Very low traffic..
24 hours $14.40
1 month $720.00
-dp
I seem to recall that there was a rash of mobile malware in japan a couple years ago. Here's just one I found on a quick search on /.
Simply have an option that will allow the ringer to simply be suppressed so long as the Bluetooth single is present.
That saves the bother of turning anything on and off (and possibly missing it on the way out), as well as requiring script kiddies to actually follow you around rather than fire and forget.
Opportunity knocks. Karma hunts you down.
What happens when the newest worm automatically dials 911. The system would be absolutely swamped, cops would be running around because when someone dials 911 and hangs up they still have to call, many people that actually had an emergency would never get through. It would be a serious disaster.
I'm a firm believer in the philosophy of a ruling class. Especially since I rule. -Randal, Clerks
could come from cell phones now. Or worse, your phone may start innocently distributing spam! Most of the blue tooth enabled phones have data services. I think a funnier worm would randomly dial people in your phonebook effectively letting friends and loved ones hear you bad mouth them.