'First' iPhone Trojan rolls into town

More a prank than a threat

By John Leyden • Get more from this author

Posted in Spyware, 7th January 2008 17:15 GMT

Hackers have created Trojan horse malware targeted at Apple's much-hyped iPhone device.

The package - more of a prank than a threat - poses as an "important system" upgrade supposedly needed prior to upgrading to version 1.1.3 of Apple's firmware. The "iPhone firmware 1.1.3 prep" seems to lack malicious purpose. Problems kick in when users try to uninstall the package.

The bogus firmware reportedly affects components of other applications during the install process including Erica's Utilities (a collection of command-line utilities for the iPhone) and OpenSSH. If the user chooses to uninstall the rogue package, these others applications will also be removed leaving users of the much-hyped device with the chore of reinstalling these applications.

"This is technically the first Trojan horse seen for the iPhone, however it does appear to be more of a prank than an actual threat," Symantec researcher Orla Cox. "The impact of uninstalling the 'Trojan' would appear to be an unintended side effect".

Web sites hosting the malicious package were taken offline soon after the discovery of the low-risk nuisance over the weekend. Although little damage was done users ought to take the incident as a warning to be careful about what packages they install on their phones.®

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