Viruses/Worms News

New iPhone worm is never gonna give you up

Monday, November 9, 2009

Apple partisans routinely tout their ostensible immunity to the majority of computer threats, but a new worm that targets user-modified iPhones may make their faces as red as Rick Astley's hair.

The worm, known as ikee, is not thought to be particularly malicious - its only purpose seems to be to change the iPhone's background to a picture of cult singer Rick Astley and display the message "ikee is never gonna give you up." The worm is thought to be related to a popular internet prank, where users expecting certain content are redirected instead to a YouTube video of the singer's hit song "Never Gonna Give You Up."

The malware appears to work only on iPhones that users have "jailbroken," or made usable on networks other than Apple's partner AT&T. Having installed the usual Unix secure shell (SSH) but not changed the password makes the device vulnerable to ikee.

An unemployed Australian programmer, Ashley Towns, is said to be responsible for creating ikee. In an interview with an employee of his ISP, Towns said that the intent of ikee was to demonstrate vulnerabilities in jailbroken iPhones.ADNFCR-1765-ID-19450007-ADNFCR

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