Symbian Phones

Nokia N95There’s a new worm (malicious code) going around infecting mobile phones that use the Symbian system (see below for a list of phones). There are two variants called the Beselo.A and Beselo.B worms.

It gets transmitted by Bluetooth or by MMS so you can’t really avoid receiving it. It consists of two parts:

With MMS messages it’s not necessary to “install” anything to view a picture or to play an audio attachment. What’s really happening is there’s no picture or audio file attached, it’s a malicious program. The wording of the message is just a trick to install the worm (a technique known as social engineering). If it were really a picture you’d be able to see it without installing anything, and likewise for audio attachments.

If you receive a message asking you to install something and it promises to show you a picture or play an audio file, say no. Delete the message.

F-Secure make an antivirus package specifically for phones that use Symbian, and that would detect the file. But common sense and the explanation above should be sufficient to avoid it.

Below are some of today’s popular phones that use Symbian S60. If your phone is on this list then it’s vulnerable to this attack.

24 January, 2008 | Filed Under Antivirus, Malware, Security 

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One Response to “Symbian Phones”

  1. Another Symbian Virus : FraudO.com on March 10th, 2008 9:42 pm

    [...] We have a list here showing some of the more popular phones that are vulnerable. If your phone uses Symbian S60 then be aware of virus messages like this one and delete them if you receive it. [...]

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