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< Esato Forum Index > Sony Ericsson / Sony > Symbian phones > Skulls Trojan keelhauls Symbian phones - from the register Bookmark topic

Users with Symbian-based mobile phones have been hit by malicious code that disables smartphone features. Skulls, a Trojan horse program that poses as gaming software, is one of the first examples of malicious code to successfully infect mobiles.

Skulls began infecting users after copies of the malware were posted on some Symbian shareware download sites by hacker called "Tee-222", Finnish anti-virus firm F-Secure reports. Skulls commonly poses as an application called "Extended Theme Manager". If installed on mobile phones running Symbian OS, Skulls will render the smartphone features of the phone useless by deactivating messaging, net access and other apps. The malware replaces application icons with a picture of a skull, hence its name.

F-Secure warns recovery of damaged functions can be difficult, especially if users don't have a third-party file manager software already installed on their mobile. Anti-virus software for Symbian Series 60, available from a number of anti-virus firms, is able to detect and remove Skulls.
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Posted: 2004-11-24 07:26:18
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Is this again just for Series60 or UIQ too.

It all sounds scary but if u think about it, it's not going to do any lasting damage if you can remove it with a file manager!!
Even in worst case scenario you may need to do a master reset & format the disc!
Nooooo, the horror of it all! Then u'd simply restore the phone from your PC backup.

Do we need to fork out for anti-virus s/w.......NO
Especially as reading that suggests it doesn't even stop the virus installing but simply removes it again, which u can do yourself with a file manager!
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Posted: 2004-11-24 10:36:00
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I thought that virus' needed to write to the root drive of a system, that is why they are so proliferant in Windows systems and not in Unix or Linux systems.

So.... my line of thinking is how can a virus write to the a or z drive of our phones (Pxxx) unless they are flashed on, as these are not accessable (at least in terms of writing to them), through the normal software installation process
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Posted: 2004-11-24 15:21:35
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Exactly! They can't do any real damage.
Anything done to C:\ or D:\ is easily undone
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Posted: 2004-11-24 15:37:00
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Quote:
On 2004-11-24 15:37:00, MikLSP wrote:
Exactly! They can't do any real damage.
Anything done to C: or D: is easily undone


It would still be a bitch for anyone who has not backed up their phone in a while (like me). (I am backing it up now just to be safe - I understand this virus isn't for UIQ, but it is good to make backups anyway.)
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Posted: 2004-11-24 16:01:10
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Well, I think we can classify a virus as any malicious program. Whether it alters the kernel of a system, or just files... still is annoying at the very least.
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Posted: 2004-11-24 16:09:53
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You can indeed use that classification but I still don't know any UIQ 'virus'
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Posted: 2004-11-24 18:15:00
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Press release on the Symbian site:
"Symbian OS phones using the UIQ user interface platform (Sony Ericsson, Motorola, BenQ, Arima) or the NTT DoCoMo FOMA platform (Fujitsu) are believed to be unaffected by this malware."


The story has also been picked up by the BBC


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Posted: 2004-11-24 20:21:17
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Picture of affected phone here

...nasty

[ This Message was edited by: strewth on 2004-11-24 19:32 ]
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Posted: 2004-11-24 20:29:49
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