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First Trojan for iPhone Appears

Techtree News Staff, Jan 09, 2008 1404 hrs IST

The Trojan aka "113 prep" targets iPhone users who've modified their phones to install third-party utilities.

News about the first Trojan for the Mac OS X-based iPhone has been doing the rounds since Saturday. However, the Trojan is believed to be mild one.

It targets iPhone users who have modified their phone to install third-party utilities.

The malicious package, called "iPhone firmware 1.1.3 prep" aka "113 prep", disguises itself as an important system upgrade supposedly needed before upgrading to version 1.1.3 of Apple's firmware.

Once users install it on their iPhone, the Trojan appears to do nothing more than display the word "shoes" on the screen.

What the Trojan does is that it overwrites applications such as 'Erica's utilities', a collection of command-line utilities for the mobile device, along with 'OpenSSH', an open-source encryption protocol.

While users attempt to get rid of the Trojan and try uninstalling it, the above mentioned applications also get deleted.

The risk in this Trojan's case is minimal as it does not cause any significant harm to the iPhone. Those affected would simply need to re-install the deleted applications to get back on track.

Apparently, a 11-year-old kid playing with XML files created the Trojan.

Hopefully, this will serve as warning for those who have opened their iPhones using a security hole in the system, and then installed unverified software without a second thought as to what they are doing, say security vendors.

USER COMMENTS

That's a good one.

by Malaiappan, Coimbatore, on Jan 11, 2008 07:35 PM, Report abuse Reply

this 11 year old kid should be a genius.

by Sid, Noida, on Jan 11, 2008 03:20 PM, Report abuse Reply

haha!!dat kid must be one genius man..at 11yrs i dint even know what xml is..

by karthik, chennai, on Jan 11, 2008 03:17 PM, Report abuse Reply

hahahaah on that english lesson part

by LambOfGoD, Pune, on Jan 10, 2008 05:04 PM, Report abuse Reply

Now a days most of the spyware companies (hackers) are going to targeted new technologies just like iPhone. The user shouldn't try to download the software which is poping out repetadly to install.

by Pramod, Pune, on Jan 10, 2008 02:55 PM, Report abuse Reply

when this phone come to bangalore

by imran, bangalore, on Jan 09, 2008 06:35 PM, Report abuse Reply

when you learn to speak in english... its available all over india im using one and so is a couple of thousand of other ppl

by yodaddy, delhi, on Jan 10, 2008 10:53 AM, Report abuse

So much for apple's so called better security than windows based devices or machines....

by Rio, bangalore, on Jan 09, 2008 04:31 PM, Report abuse Reply

You must intentionally circumvent the security of the phone to install unsigned applications. Not something you could do by accident. This is really not a simple task. Windows can still pick up viruses and malware by browsing to the wrong site on default settings in xp. Please do learn what you are talking about before you post.

by JoshuaFleetwood, Boston, on Jan 10, 2008 09:46 AM, Report abuse

iphone-developer . co . uk

by iphone, iphone, on Jan 10, 2008 04:59 AM, Report abuse Reply

If you're stupid enough to download a Firmware update from a site other than via the Apple Software Update App in iTunes you deserve to have your phone damaged. The Mac platform is far more secure than the PC, but you can never rule out user stupidity! If you hack your phone what do you expect? Rio did you not spot words "modified iPhones" in the story, (modified = hacked) or are you just another blinded PC using Mac Hater?

by Kaos7, UK, on Jan 09, 2008 07:36 PM, Report abuse Reply