Rickrolling iPhone worm is never gonna give you up
Well, this hacker has quite the sense of humor.
Reports started spreading this weekend that iPhone users in Australia had been falling victim to "ikee," a worm that replaces default wallpaper with a picture of Rick Astley, the British pop singer whose song "Never Gonna Give You Up" has gained eternal infamy thanks to the mainstreaming of the "Rickrolling" prank craze. The photo is accompanied by the message "ikee is never gonna give you up," and it's apparently quite difficult to remove. According to security firm Sophos, this is the first worm detected that targets the iPhone.
The vulnerability is pretty specific: the phones must be jailbroken in order to be affected, and it appears to spread by searching an infected phone's contacts to find other jailbroken-phone users who have installed the Unix software SSH (secure shell) but haven't yet changed their passwords from Apple's default root password, "alpine."
Sophos says that it has not heard of any occurrences of the worm outside Australia, and that while it doesn't appear to do anything worse than irritate and embarrass affected users, that it highlights the vulnerabilities that jailbroken phones face.
Caroline McCarthy, a CNET News staff writer, is a downtown Manhattanite happily addicted to social-media tools and restaurant blogs. Her pre-CNET resume includes interning at an IT security firm and brewing cappuccinos. E-mail Caroline. 
This is a Wi-Fi hack, meaning the person doing it must be on the same Wi-Fi network, and you must have jailbroken the iPhone, installed SSH, and then been dumb enough to not change the default root and user passwords.
As usual, cnet can?t bother to do the simplest research or fact checking before posting a story.
anyway, you're the one checking and then responding to this.
so if this is a non-story, well mrscottjennings, you just love wasting life.
:) love you caroline.
The Sophos post even mentions that the worm "appears to attempt to find other iPhones on the mobile phone network" - i.e. a scanning attack similar to the one used by this Dutch hacker: http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2009/11/dutch-hacker-holds-jailbroken-iphones-hostage-for-5.ars which relies on jailbroken iPhones running SSH with the default root password - the address book doesn't make an appearance in either case.
This sort of attack can happen via WiFi or the cellular network (the latter if the cellular provider doesn't block port 22 incoming to its devices).
Maybe reading linked sources would be a good idea, especially on stories revolving around worms and security, a field which is already rife with FUD from security vendors and pundits.
Sean
Or any other cracked programs tend to do similar bad things
hey Cnet, you figure cracking an OS has any negative implications?
Lol
Calssic koolaid induced response. You do know that ole Jobsy made the Iphone crippled, how in the hell do you think the Iphone has been compromised so often.
LOL!
But really go ahead and believe in whatever Jobsy tells you, its allright, Right???
Rick Astley is as hot now as he ever was. RA is a phenomenon unto himself with those silky smooth tonsils and 2 feet planted dance moves that rival any 80's or early 90's artist. Did you even watch the video?! Do you even realize that Mr. Astley has a slightly above average singing range. On top of all that he doesn't even look like he's able to sing the way he does, BUT HE CAN, HE'S FREAK'N RICK ASTLEY! I'm sorry sir but as you are obviously COMPLETELY blind (maybe that's why you don't like windows?) I don't think you're qualified to comment about the great Rick Astley. Good day to you sir, and you can keep your poisonous apple. ;)
and you LEAVE "SSH" TURNED ON.
Y'know, I had a neighbor robbed who left their doors open with a sign saying "we're on holiday for the week"
Rick Astley ? na Thanks
I find it irresponsible to report something stupid like this since there is no real danger to the "victims" or their equipment.
This just in, STUPID PEOPLE ARE VULNERABLE TO MALWARE.
Oh wait, you just caught on?
is there a way to get rid of it? please help
- by kool_skatkat November 23, 2009 7:37 AM PST
- You'd think that the jail breaking tool creators would at least make it safe for their users and automate the process. Unless their focus is not more security but less security if it provides more freedom.
- Like this Reply to this comment
-
(31 Comments)If you loose money after jailbraking your phone, do get to sue the author of the tools?