There’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:
- An attachment with an interesting name, such as beauty.jpg, sex.mp3, or love.rm
- A text message asking you to “install” the attachment to view it
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.
- LG – JoY
- Nokia – 3250, 5500 Sport, 5700, 6110 Navigator, 6260, 6290, 6600, 6630, 6680, 6682, E50, E51, E60, E61, E61i, E65, E70, E90, N70, N72, N73, N75, N76, N80, N81, N90, N91, N92, N93i, N93, N95, N95 8GB, N82, N81 8GB, 6120, N77
- Nokia (discontinued) – 6681, 6670, 3230, 7610, 3650, 3600, 3660, 3620, 7650, N-Gage, 6620
- Panasonic – X800, X700
- Samsung – SGH-D720, SGH-D730, SGH-i450, SGH-i520, SGH-i550, SGH-i560
- Sendo – X
- Siemens – SX1