iPhone smartphone virus onslaught now coming?

By Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Friday, 13 November 2009 11:17

Opinion and Analysis

As the ikee Rick Astley and the iPhone/Privacy.A iPhone malware attacks take the world by storm, will iPhones and smartphones now start becoming subject to the onslaught of virus attacks common in the Windows world of PCs?

Although jailbroken iPhones downloading unapproved third party software from questionable online sources were at risk of malicious software even during the days of iPhone OS 1.x, smartphones have, in general, escaped the widespread need for security software as is common on Windows PC.

Now the topic of smartphone viruses, malware threats and information theft have come roaring back to the fore thanks to the latest ikee worm and iPhone/Privacy.A attacks on jailbroken iPhones with the default SSH password still in place.

Through knowledge of the widely known and default “alpine” SSH password, jailbroken iPhones can be wirelessly targeted by the iPhone/Privacy.A hacker tool loaded onto a Windows, Mac or Linux PC, or another jailbroken iPhone.

The original Intego report says the tool uses the computer or iPhone with the Privacy.A hacking tool to scan for affected iPhones and can then steal data right off the phone.

Intego also says that “...it is not possible to protect the iPhone from this hacker tool – it does not install anything on an iPhone”, but as iTWire’s David Heath has reported, among many others, it is possible to protect yourself from this attack simply by changing your SSH password to something else. 

iPhones that haven’t been jailbroken aren’t subject to the virus attack, so the vast majority of iPhone users that haven’t gone down the jailbreaking route are safe, which is good to know, but anyone who has jailbroken their phone should change their SSH password immediately!

Although Graham Cluley from Sophos believes the Australian ikee worm has “let the genie out of the bottle” when it comes to iPhone viruses, the truth is that the SSH default password exploit was already being, well, exploited elsewhere.

Page 2: iPhone hacker extorting users for cash, will an iPhone virus epidemic truly emerge and what does it mean for us all as technology users? Please read on.