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HTC Android Phones Found With Malware Pre-Installed
Trailrunner7 writes "Security researchers have found that Vodafone, one of the world's larger wireless providers, is distributing some HTC phones with malware pre-installed on them. The phone, HTC's Magic, runs the Google Android mobile operating system, and is one of the more popular handsets right now. A researcher at Panda Software received one of the handsets recently, and upon attaching it to her PC, found that the phone was pre-loaded with the Mariposa bot client. Mariposa has been in the news of late thanks to some arrests connected to the operation of the botnet."
It's an undocumented feature!
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
No user intervention, IT JUST WORKS
"I use a Mac because I'm just better than you are."
The software in question was an autorun file, so it wasn't installed on the phone, it was just present on the phone's flash drive waiting to try to infect any OS stupid enough to automatically run programs from untrusted devices. It's not like the phone was running a botnet client and using up your data allowance sending spam, it was just a carrier.
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
I'm personally getting fed up with companies that allow this to happen. If companies that distribute devices that come pre-loaded with malware were fined heavily for each instance, they'd likely hire a few good devs and QA people to ensure that this sort of thing doesn't happen again.
There's absolutely no excuse for this. If you contract out development or manufacturing and that leads to this kind of security risk, there's still no excuse. Unfortunately as of right now there are few if any consequences associated with this type of negligence -- which means that companies aren't going to do much to improve their security practices.
Facts have a liberal bias.
Linux is not a malware. Such smear tactic at slashdot must stop.
Fuck systemd. Fuck Redhat. Fuck Soylent, too. Wait, scratch the last one.
When people are trying to slander it. They're blaming everyone under the sun, when the most likely vector is a store employee who simply plugged the device into a computer and copied the file to the flash drive.
Enough said.
Queue the parade of iPhone drummers.
BTW, I wonder if this is one of the patents Apple is suing over
Windows malware preinstalled on a Linux device?
Is it WINE-compatible, and can WINE even be installed on Android phones?
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. - Voltaire
Following the linked article, and following that to the original post, we find that first off, it's a single phone, not more than one that had this malware, and we are informed of the software that detected this, coincidentally the commercial product the researchers are working on:
I'm rushing out today to buy this software that can do such feats as detecting this malware. They have a Linux version, right?
So, is THIS what Apple was suing HTC over at the International Trade Commission? Does Apple have a patent on preloaded malware on smartphones?
If they do I'm sure Microsoft can claim prior art.
I agree it has nothing to do with Android, but that case had most certainly something to do with Apple. They use those crappy manufacturing facilities to save a few bucks and then save even more by not doing proper QA.
And before you claim how innocent and harmless this is, consider what is happening to Toyota. Or the numerous quality issues with products from China and god knows how many more places. In order to maximize profits (because you can't claim cost savings are passed onto to the consumer with Apple products) they cut corners everywhere and sooner or later something has to give.
And long after guy who got the bonus for cutting costs has left, the shit starts to happen. Toyota used to be the largest and fast growing, with the economy not affecting it nearly as much as the other car makers. Now it can't shift its cars. And the money for huge cash injections has already been spent. This might end up hurting Toyota, and for what? A few cents more to the stock holders.
It will be interesting to find out how this phone got its extra payload, but ultimately the story will be, lack of quality control. And someday your life may depend on cut rate QA.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Dont go the way of kdawson, soulskill.
Next we'll be reading stuff like "My best friend's sister's boyfriend's brother's girlfriend heard from this guy who knows this kid who's going with the girl who saw Ferris pass out at 31 Flavors last night. I guess it's pretty serious. He might have Mariposa, or Confiker or something. Better get Ferris some AntiVirus software from PandaAV"
meep