Malware targets S60 mobiles

 

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By Simon Aughton

Posted on 22 Jan 2008 at 11:59

F-Secure is reporting that two variants of a new mobile phone worm have been discovered in the wild.

The SymbOS/Beselo family of worms, comprising Beselo.A and Beselo.B, infect devices running Symbian's S60 platform, and spread via MMS and Bluetooth by tricking users into running an incoming Symbian application installer (.sis) file.

Naturally the malware does not advertise itself as such, preferring common media extensions and vaguely enticing filenames. Known instances are beauty.jpg, sex.mp3, and love.rm.

F-Secure notes that both worms have been able to escape operator and antivirus company attention for some time by employing this simple disguise.

"As there are a lot of JPG and other media files travelling over MMS all the time it's no wonder that it took a while for people to realise that there is a new worm on the loose," says F-Secure's Jarno Niemela.

Niemela says that the Beselo worms are very similar to 2005's Commwarrior worm.

F-Secure advises users of S60 phones to reject any installation prompt that appears when trying to open a media file.

"There is no reason for any image file to ask installation questions on the Symbian platform, so any image or sound file that does something else than play immediately is without question something else than it claims to be," the company writes on its blog.

The S60 website lists devices running the affected OS.

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