Skulls variant threatens Nokia phones

By Matt Whipp

Posted on 7 Jan 2005 at 14:10

A new variant of the Skulls virus for Nokia phones using the Symbian-based Series 60 platform has been discovered.

Skulls-D is being touted around the Net as a Macromedia Flash Player with the filename Flash_1[1].1_Full_DotSiS.sis, but instead of disabling all applications as with previous versions, Skulls-D only disables the applications needed to get rid of the virus.

With third-party applications, Skulls-D copies replacement files to the memory card, so if the applications have been stored on the phone's internal memory, they will still function.

The new variant also drops a version of the Cabir virus which transmits itself across Bluetooth connections. However, F-Secure says its generic signature for the virus will pick up this variant.

The virus also installs a program that will show a flashing picture of a skull when the phone is rebooted.

F-Secure's advice is to not reboot the phone, and download and install its antivirus software from its website. This can be done directly onto the phone through this link.