BitDefender identifies dangerous iPhone unlocking software serving up malware

SYDNEY & AUCKLAND – July 29, 2010 – The U.S. government’s announcement on Monday that iPhone owners can legally ‘jailbreak’ out of their device has seen an increase in helpful articles, emails and blog all instructing owners how they can safely and quickly unlock their iPhones to third party applications, with the cybercriminals quick to issue their own supposedly helpful application.

Proving that cybercriminals never lack imagination, a new malware-spreading email campaign targeting iPhone unlocking fans purports to be a downloadable unlocking application for iPhones. Users are encouraged to click the link within the email that takes them to the web page with the apparently desired software.

But users who click on the link will find an exe file attempts to download, which once it is saved and run onto the user’s computer, opens up the way for an unfriendly Trojan.

Identified by BitDefender as Trojan.Generic.3010833, this piece of malware is a keylogger that transmits everything the user writes on the computer to a specific email address, in this particular case to directory[REMOVED]@hotmail.com.

This allows the malware creators to intercept the victim’s visited sites, usernames, passwords, bank accounts information, such as pin number, bank account numbers, passwords, etc.

In order to stay safe, BitDefender recommends never opening suspicious links or attachments without scanning them first and that all users run an up-to-date antimalware software solution on their computers.

Image 1: The email offering the wonder-software

Image 2: The software proves to be malware

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