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Beware of iPhone firmware 1.1.3 prep; it’s a Trojan |
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Written by Smita Raghav
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Saturday, 12 January 2008 |
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FRIDAY, JAN 11, (News Locale) - Security firm F-Secure revealed that the first Trojan for iPhone has appeared and while the virus is a mild one, the incident could lead to more lethal viruses appearing on the iPhones.
According to the US Computer Emergency Response Team (US-CERT), software called "iPhone firmware 1.1.3 prep" is available for iPhone users that is projecting itself as an important an important update before Apple's much awaited 1.1.3 update is released.
When the user downloads the software and installs it, the Trojan displays the word "shoes". If the user tries to uninstall the Trojan, a number of applications such as Doom, OpenSSH, Launcher and Erica's Utilities is removed, meaning that the user will have to once again reinstall those applications.
"This Trojan claims to be a tool used to prepare the device for an upgrade to firmware version 1.1.3. When a user installs the Trojan, other application components are altered. If the Trojan is uninstalled, the affected applications may also be removed", US-CERT said in a statement.
The Trojan was reportedly created by a 11-year old kid who was trying to rewrite XML files. While this attack has been dismissed as a prank, F-Secure said that a fix has to be found out before more lethal viruses appear.
"This time it was an 11-year-old kid playing with XML files who created the Trojan. Next time it might be someone else with more skills and with specific target", the company wrote in its blog.
The iPhone was released in the US on June 29 and in select European countries during November last year. It is an immensely popular device given that it combines a cell phone, a music player and a web browser in one device. Hackers though have targeted the device intermittently and the latest episode is another such attempt to compromise iPhone's security.
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