Android SMS trojan goes wild

Premium-rate text scam shows growing cracks in smart phone security.

The first known SMS trojan affecting smart phones running

Google

‘s

Android

operating system has been observed in the wild, highlighting growing cracks in the security veneer of the latest range of glossy smart phones.

The trojan was first identified by researchers at

Kaspersky Lab

(whose report on the problem can be read

here

). After tricking users into installing the code by disguising it as a free media player app, the trojan sends premium-rate SMS messages, racking up expensive bills for the phone’s owner and raking in cash for the malware’s operators. So far the trojan is only thought to be affecting users in Russia; a more technical breakdown of its operation is

here

.

The news comes just days after

Apple

announced a patch for a security vulnerability in its

iOS

, running on

iPhone

s,

iPod Touch

es and

iPad

s, which could allow a website to run code to ‘jailbreak’ the device, simply by being viewed. While no malicious attacks were known to be using the exploit, it highlights the very real threat to the security of the latest generation of smart phones – thought by many to be inherently safe thanks to their relatively closed design and limited ability to install new software.

The updates to fix the flaw (details

here

for

iPhone

/

iPod Touch

users and

here

for

iPad

s) require fairly large downloads, and it seems likely that users who do not update promptly will be at risk from maliciously crafted sites in the near future. The security risks of jailbroken devices have already been demonstrated by the ‘Ikee’ and ‘Duh’ worms

seen in 2009

.

Several vendors have already released security solutions for the current generation of phones, with others thought to be working on offerings; meanwhile a specialist developer has already deployed 2.5 million copies of a free

Android

anti-malware app, as reported in

The Register


here

.

The Register

also has more details on the

Android

and

iPhone

problems

here

and

here

.

Posted on 12 August 2010 by

Virus Bulletin