Warning – New iPhone Virus
Two worm style viruses have been discovered during November 2009 for the Apple iPhone, and whilst the first seems benign, if annoying, the second would appear to have potentially more serious implications.
The Ikee virus has been detected in Australia and is said to infect vulnerable iPhone devices, changing the wallpaper on the iPhone to an image of Rick Astley, adding a message “ikee is never going to give you up”.
The later virus, which seems to build on some of the Ikee code that handles the replication across phones, tries to connect to a server in Lithuania and also changes the root password on the iPhone.
If you find your iPhone is infected there is some good news, in that the new password has been identified as "ohshit" allowing users to regain control of their devices.
These two viruses only affect jailbroken iPhones with SSH (secure shell) protocol enabled and unchanged default passwords.
Discovered by mobile antivirus software company F-Secure, it is acknowledged that although these worms are not yet widespread, the progression towards a more invasive virus that is looking to do damage and steal data is alarming and stands as a reminder of the need to be vigilant where mobile security is concerned.