UK iPhone Virus Woes

Virus or Trojan? Facts are a 11 year old kid has managed to exploit a security whole left in iPhones that have been ‘jailbroken’ to allow 3d party applivation sto be installed.

Thanks to Gary for pointing this out and to Macworld UK for the article which I have copied below:

The first Trojan for the iPhone has been discovered. The first reports came from iPhone enthusiast site Modmyifone.com and were later confirmed by security research company F-Secure.


The virus does not currently pose a huge risk, the Trojan specifically targets users that have modified their iPhone so they can install third-party applications. The application masks itself as an update to Erica’s Utilities and is labeled as “113 prep.”



According to Modmyifone.com all the app does is say “shoes.” However, when uninstalled, the application removes files from the /bin directory on the iPhone, breaking valid apps like Sendfile and Erica’s Utilities.



The site hosting the application was taken offline soon after it was discovered, reports F-Secure.

“Hopefully this serves as a warning for those who have opened their iPhones using a security hole in the system and then installing unverified software without a second thought to what they are doing,” said F-Secure on its site.



F-Secure reported that it was an 11-year-old kid playing with XML files who created the Trojan. “Next time it might be someone else with more skills and with specific target,” they said.