Trojan hits Android smart phones

Computerworld ^ | 08/10/2010 | James Hutchinson

[Swordmaker]

Cyber security company, Kaspersky Lab, has identified the first virus to hit Google’s Android operating system, adding to the small but growing list of malicious attacks against smartphones.

The Trojan virus, named Trojan-SMS.AndroidOS.FakePlayer.a, is distributed through a message sent to users prompting them to install a 13 kilobyte (KB) “harmless” media player application. Once installed, the Trojan virus sends SMS messages to premium rate numbers without notifying the user.

In a security alert sent out by Kaspersky Lab, the security company said it believed the Trojan program was targeted at siphoning money from smartphone user’s mobile accounts and delivering it to cybercriminals.

The Trojan is, according to Kaspersky Lab, the first identified to specifically targeted Android-based smartphones.

Last year, two separate malicious attacks hit the iPhone, with the ”Ikee” and ”Duh” or “Ikee.B” both targeting jailbroken iPhones by using the default secure shell (SSH) password that often went unchanged by users on the phone.

The vulnerability was initially used by Australian teen, Ashley Towns, to spread pictures of 1980s pop star, Rick Astley, but later taken advantage of to upload user banking information to a server in Lithuania.

Kaspersky Lab’s mobile research group manager, Denis Maslennikov, attributed the new Android virus to increasing sales of smartphones running the platform.

“We can expect to see a corresponding rise in the amount of malware targeting that platform,” he said in a statement.

The Trojan requires the user to first agree to install the player.  

[rabscuttle385]

Is this sent via SMS text or via e-mail?

[big'ol_freeper]

iPhone

[TeachableMoment]

Thanks for the heads up, as Android takes off, more and more unsophisticated users on the platform who might actually install a program sent from an anonymous text.

[Swordmaker]

Android smartphone trojan spreading by email offer of "FREE" media player app. Don't fall for it.

Tech list pings please! I'm pinging the Apple list because many members are Verizon, Sprint, or T-Mobile customers who have Android phones. No ulterior motives other than a warning.

[Swordmaker]

This is spreading by SMS and email. Beware of both.

[rintense]

Anyone dumb enough to open an unsolicited email with an attachment deserves this. And that includes on an impenetrable iPhone. Even more so.

[Swordmaker]

Is this sent via SMS text or via e-mail?

I first heard about it from a friend with an Android who got a spam email who asked me if I knew anything about the media player app. I went looking for info and found the article in Computerworld. Warned her and posted it here. So the answer is both.

[rabscuttle385]

I’ll be on the lookout. I got an Android phone recently, and I would hate for it to get compromised. Thanks for the heads up.

[Swordmaker]

Anyone dumb enough to open an unsolicited email with an attachment deserves this. And that includes on an impenetrable iPhone. Even more so.

Why? And especially why "more so." The iPhone will not install it from email nor from an SMS message.

[goseminoles]

I have a b-berry that a recent ex put spyware on. I never password protected my phone and left it in the living at night. She was a couple hours late to bed a couple nights and must have installed spyware.
I would send a couple bogus emails talking about specific things while 225 miles away. Within 3 minutes she texted me exactly was said. Anyways, got the OS cleaned, new phone#, new email, etc.. Crazy beotch.
I think the USSS had valid concerns about the president carrying a blackberry willy-nilly..

[PA Engineer]

jailbroken

[stripes1776]

Thanks for the heads up, as Android takes off, more and more unsophisticated users on the platform who might actually install a program sent from an anonymous text.

I thought that was supposed to be one of the greatest features of the Android platform. It will let you install any program from any source.

[hamboy]

AV companies just wanna sell their products to additional market, i.e., Android OS and Apple’s...

[Pearls Before Swine]

She loved you enough to cyber-stalk you. Touching.

Usually it’s guys who bug their female ex’s.

[ShadowAce]

hmmm. I think the installed base of Android phones is less than the installed base of Linux servers.

So much for the "it's not targeted because of the lack of market share" theory.

[zeugma]

So much for the "it's not targeted because of the lack of market share" theory.

Don't let the facts get in the way of FUD