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Cracking the BlackBerry with a $100 Key

Posted by Zonk on from the reach-out-and-worming-someone dept.

Hit Reply writes "Eweek is running the contents of a Symantec white paper that details how easy it is for a hacker to manipulate BlackBerry applications. Using a developer key that can be purchased by anyone for $100, an attacker can launch e-mail worms, SMS interception and backdoor attacks, and compromise the integrity of contacts, events and to-do items. The white paper has been yanked from Symantec's Web site." From the article: "Signed applications can send e-mail and read incoming e-mail. A malicious application could be used to allow third parties to send messages from the infected BlackBerry and also read all received messages. A malicious application could also use e-mail as a command and control channel to receive instructions to send and receive e-mails; send and receive SMS messages; add, delete and modify contacts and PIM data; read dialed phone numbers; initiate phone calls; and open TCP/IP connections."

6 of 94 comments (clear)

  1. repeat 5x: by circletimessquare · · Score: 4, Funny

    how many crackberries could a cracker crack if a cracker could crack crackberries?

    --
    intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
  2. will it be used maliciously? by spoondisaster · · Score: 2, Funny

    It sounds like it could be possible stalker fodder, but I don't know how many people would find the information a Crackberry stores/sends/receives to be highly valuable. Sure, they could be malicious and run up someone's text messaging bill, but there are a lot funnier ways to piss people off, such as by putting gum on the scroller wheel.

  3. In other news by Van+Cutter+Romney · · Score: 5, Funny

    In other news, NTP just sued Blackberry, citing that the vulnerability was actually patented by them.

    --
    Help a man when he is in trouble and he will remember you when he is in trouble again.
  4. That's nothing! by raehl · · Score: 2, Funny

    I can crack a blackberry with a $4 hammer!

    I can do it for free with my fist, but that kinda hurts.

    --
    paintball
  5. Re:And just like all the other BlackBerry "exploit by Ferzerp · · Score: 2, Funny

    I've decided this news posting was just an elaborate ploy by Slashdot to identify the BES admins in the slashdot community :P

  6. Nobody's that stupid... by TheGrinningFool · · Score: 3, Funny

    ... I mean come on, nobody's stupid enough to install random software on their machine without knowing what it does. Oh, wait...