Apple iPhone users in Australia are being hit with the first ever worm written specifically for the iPhone says a story in PC World.
The worm known as ikee, changes the user’s iPhone wallpaper into a photograph of the 80’s singer Rick Astley before seeking out other phones to infect.
Not all iPhone users are at risk though; the worm will only infect phones that have been modified in such a way as to be able to run unauthorised software.
The phones at risk are those that have Secure Shell software installed with the default password “Alpine”. It won’t affect iPhones using the popular Network Address Translation technology.
What SSH software does is allow users to connect the iPhone remotely to the Internet and at the same time opens a back door to threats.
Ikee was written by Ashley Towns, an unemployed 21 year old programmer from Wollongong, Australia.
At the moment we don’t know how many phones across Oz have been infected but according to Towns, his phone alone has infected around 100 other phones. There’s also no indication that it has spread outside Australia.
The worm’s creator said “it was supposed to be a small prank, I definitely wasn’t expecting it to get as far as it did”. Bet he didn’t!
Towns also didn’t really think about the law which was he admits was a bit “naive “, apparently what he was trying to highlight was the point that people should change the default iPhone password.
To start with some people thanked him for his efforts but inevitably some people were bound to be a bit miffed.
“I think most people are relieved it’s not out to destroy their phone. I have had a few people abuse me though” said Towns.
The worm itself doesn’t really sound too serious does it, I mean you have to put up with a pic of Rick on your phone, but according to Graham Cluley, a Sophos technology consultant, the worm could potentially be quite a threat if it was modified.
“There is a real danger that someone could take this code and make it do something malicious” said Cluley.
You might wonder whether Apple are concerned about the first iPhone worm, but maybe not as they have been trying to put a stop to “jailbreaking” for years says the security expert.
“They might be a little bit pleased to hear that people have got themselves into hot water,” said Cluley.
If you want to find out all the latest news on tech why not subscribe to our RSS feed?
Leave a Reply