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Mobile Spyware Conferences Into Your Calls
wiredmikey writes "Reports of Multiple Variants of Android Virus 'Hong Tou Tou' are showing up, which has mainly been working its way onto smartphones via alternative app marketplaces.
Today, we saw reports of a new variant of spyware "Spy.Felxispy" targeting Symbian devices, identified by the National Computer Virus Emergency Response Centre of China. More than a dozen variants of the spyware have emerged since the first was spotted, and the latest has affected 150,000+ devices. Once installed, the spyware will turn on the Conference Call feature of the device without users' awareness. When users are making phone calls, the spyware automatically adds itself to the call to monitor the conversation."
Pray tell. How does this virus propagate?
**TODO** Steal someone elses sig.
Say what you will about Apple's "walled garden" but I don't hear of such things on their AppStore.
Trolling is a art,
My conversations is so boring that I sometimes don't even pay attention myself
Was Steve Jobs right? Is a single, restrictive & tested, marketplace the way to go?
-Daniel
And this would be reason number 7329 to _not_ use alternative app markets, especially if they're hosted in China. The ability to install unauthorized apps is great, but that ability should only be used if you can download the apk file directly from someone you have reason to trust. I've done that a couple times and not had any problem.
This may change slightly once Amazon and others start putting up their own app stores with their own authorization process, but that's entirely different from installing some random market run by nobody you've ever heard of before.
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I mean, what is the virus monitoring conversations for? Is it looking for financial information? Identifying information? Or keywords like "Tibet", "Falun Gong", "Christianity", "protests"?
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
Not if but when it would happen was the question.
With the popularity of smartphones, apps and mobile broadband it comes as no surprise that everyone ... yes everyone has found new opportunities.
Who wins? The antivirus and anti-malware software companies of course. :-)
For users not advanced enough to be trusted to admin their own net-connected device, of course.
So, in general the answer is "yes".
Anyone who has had to support "normal" users has an anecdote about someone with a malware problem. Say what you will about having a single company that has to vet all apps for a particular type of device - but it does help make things easier for those of us who have to support these devices in our organizations.
Putting moderation advice in your
Build teleconference virus to call 1-900 number that charges $$$ per minute
Deploy to 150,000 devices
PROFIT!!
In communist China, expensive phone number calls you.
Obi-Wan: "I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were sudden
1. Convert phone call wave data to moderately high bitrate mp3 for transfer.
2. Send back a message with the phone numbers and mp3 attachment to the state security agency.
3. Add it to a batch operation to process for words and phrases of interest.
4. Build profiles along the way with tallies on each phone number.
5. Once a threshold has been reached, pass it onto a human to see if it's worthwhile to strap on the jackboots.
6. Arrest at your convenience.
This virus is probably a simple proof of concept for that scenario to test Android.
When users are making phone calls, the spyware automatically adds itself to the call to monitor the conversation.
To what end? Does it record the call and then transfer the audio somewhere? or is there a whole army of hackers waiting to 'listen in' on the calls as they get conferenced to some central numbers. Oh, and what are these numbers and has anybody tried calling them?
Or does it just add costs to your call by turning it into a conference call? If so does one particular Telco benefit?
"Oops, I always forget the purpose of competition is to divide people into winners and losers." - Hobbes
welcome our new everything-is-my-business virus overlords.
...or its walled-garden app store that protects your snowflakes from the evil world.
Don't believe anything I say. I crash test crack pipes for a living.
Can someone explain to me why manufacturers of software are not liable for leaving gaping security holes in software they release and its always turned towards the user. Oh the user shouldn't have done this, that and the other (yes people are stupid for downloading from unofficial sources) but the system shouldn't be so exploitable from the beginning.
No one learned from Windows all these years? What, too hard to create secure system? I guess its more important to give the consumer a new shiny every 6 months then actually create a secure system that runs on the shiny new thing.
by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
In The execution channel, Ken McLeod imagines a camera firmware that can recognizes when 'pain or suffering' is being filmed and automatically transmits it to a pirate TV. It's not that far off when your average virus now listens to your calls...
Non-Linux Penguins ?
What do you mean? Android has signed apps. All apps in the Market are signed.
The 30% may not come out of the developer's pocket, but it WILL be reflected in lost sales for the developer. 30% could quite possibly be the difference between a sale or not.
Homeland Security is at it again, eh? Now they wanna conference in on every mobile call as it happens, so they can listen in real-time for those Seven Words (or something)?
Android does it right:
Signed, 'safe', apps, and the option to forge off into the wild frontier if that is your thing.
It's better that you give up a few freedoms in the name of security so that you can get what you deserve..
How have people discovered this on their device? How have they removed it? Does any current AV on the main android market protect against or even detect these? I'm thinking of AVG, or is that no longer a reliable AV, I've personally not used AVG for a year or two.
Most comments here are worried about what exactly this one virus does. I'd think as IT types the focus should be what can be done about it. (lets assume that we will be exposed to it) How do we prevent negative results from that exposure.
Those who can, do.
I'll agree with your assessment with my experiences with repairing people's malware infested PCs. Some 90% of the time I'll find limewire on these computers and can trace the viruses' origin to some song the user tried to download for free. It's astounding how many people ruin their computers - that cost a few hundred dollars - trying to save a few dollars by downloading a few songs for free.
what happens when you have no network access?
The same thing apps do when running on an iPod touch or Archos 43: show cached advertisements downloaded when the app last synchronized data to "the cloud". This makes them not clickable, but TV ads aren't clickable either.
There's not one iPhone SMS/Phone spyware app available for a non-jailbroken iphone.
The walled garden is more than just a feeling of security. To say otherwise is absurd.
In modernized countries, these problems are completely insignificant for spreading HIV. I'll grant that it's more likely than death by meteorite.
I've yet to see any computing device--mobile, laptop, etc. "ruined" by downloading a song. The OS trashed, yes. But never seen one actually permanently disabled.
I've found that most of the people who download malware/virii on a regular basis have now quite adept at popping a Windows disk in the optical drive and "Pressing any key to boot from CD/DVD...", probably because they saw me do it so many times to the tune of $40 and some beer that they actually learned something.
Besides, reinstalling your OS (provided you can follow instructions that any monkey can figure out) isn't that hard and costs zero, and actually paying for media costs you something.
Of course it isn't ruined for one with sufficient technical skills, but for the average user, it is unless they want to pay someone else to fix it. And some techs are better at removing all of the viruses than others. Also, there is the matter of the user's personal data and apps.
According to NetQin, the cybercriminals usually install the spyware on the phone by sending an MMS containing the spyware to users to lure them to click.
In other words, moronic end users who click on anything are susceptible to exploits. News at 11. I'll start worrying the day they are actually able to produce zero user intervention Symbian malware, right now, in 2011.
"..One hosts to look them up, one DNS to find them, and in the darkness BIND them."