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Music and Movies Could Trigger Mobile Malware

Posted by timothy on from the seeds-of-your-own-destruction dept.

mask.of.sanity writes "Lights, sounds and magnetic fields can be used to activate malware on phones, new research has found. The lab-style attacks defined in a paper (PDF) used pre-defined signals hidden in songs and TV programmes as a trigger to activate embedded malware. Malware once activated would carry out programmed attacks either by itself or as part of a wider botnet of mobile devices."

8 of 88 comments (clear)

  1. Re:A good reason by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    A better reason to ignore the torrent of mobile malware FUD being spewed by all the Windows AV vendors.

    They're terrified because their business model involves being parasites bandaiding a virus ridden OS that's now failing in the market. Like fleas without a dog, hey're desperate to find a new host, but since modern mobile OSs aren't as colander-like as Windows, they're being forced further and further into snake-oil realms.

    This story deserves nothing but ridicule.

  2. Lame by Alsee · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Lame article.

    If you're already infected by malware, that malware can sit there and wait to do stuff any time it wants. Not exactly a big surprise.

    -

    --
    - - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
    1. Re:Lame by Karmashock · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Bingo. I'd mod you up if I had the points.

      Forget malware, what they're saying is that "software" can respond to input to trigger subroutines.

      Which is shocking... I'm shocked... aren't you? We're both shocked... it's shocking.

      So yeah... stupid article.

      --
      I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
    2. Re:Lame by multiben · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Yes. This ^^^
      This is just fear mongering. If you've already put malware on your phone then you're boned - there are countless ways it may "activate" itself - whatever that means. Just more crap from anti virus software companies whose products are worse than the malware they're meant to prevent.

    3. Re:Lame by gl4ss · · Score: 5, Insightful

      and if you have malware doing constant audio/light analyzing then at least you don't need to worry about it malwareing about too long.

      because you'll run out of battery pretty fast.

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      world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
    4. Re:Lame by niftydude · · Score: 5, Insightful

      If you're already infected by malware, that malware can sit there and wait to do stuff any time it wants. Not exactly a big surprise.

      -

      Yes, the word "research" seems to be used rather loosely in that article.

      Any input into a smartphone can be used to launch any app listening for it. This could be gps coords, barometric pressure, direction from the built in compass...

      Well it is University of Alabama, perhaps we should be just grateful that they are studying something other than intelligent design.

      --
      You can never know everything, and part of what you do know will always be wrong. Perhaps even the most important part.
  3. Breaking news!! (Or just another PR puff piece). by gweilo8888 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This just in -- any input on your compromised device can potentially be used as a trigger for malware to launch its preprogrammed attack. News at 11!

    Seriously, what kind of nonsense is this? They *could* also use your GPS / network location to activate only in a specific location, or the compass to activate only when the phone faces Mecca, or the tilt sensor and camera together to activate only when you're trying to shoot a level picture, or ... well, anything, really.

    It makes not one jot of difference what they use as a trigger once your phone is compromised. The point is, it's already been compromised, and it's effectively wide-open to anything the hardware is physically capable of. How it was compromised in the first place is what's important, not meaningless conjecture on how the exploit's eventual activation can be timed in the least efficient way possible. (All this nonsensical idea would do is drain your battery in no time by holding the mic and processor active all the time, thereby ensuring the phone runs out of battery before the exploit activates.)

    I mourn for the days when Slashdot posted intelligent tech articles, instead of a stream of PR puff pieces designed to spread FUD and generate clicks. There is not one useful or non-obvious piece of info in this "research".

  4. Re:A good reason by some+old+guy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You, me, and a few thousand professionals and "power users" got your message years ago. What was true in 1995 remains true. System integrity is the owner's responsibility.

    One thing that hasn't been fixed is the millions of teenage girls, grandmothers, and neckbeards clicking on every widget that pops on a screen, and falling for every "fix your PC" gimmick they see.

    It all boils down to, "You can't fix stupid."

    --
    Scruting the inscrutable for over 50 years.