Tuesday, 10 June 2008

New Vulnerability on latest Symbian OS Detected

Security company F-Secure last week detected a new vulnerability on the latest version of the Symbian Operating System (OS), the Symbian OS 9 S60, which allows mobile phone hackers to bypass its security system and make modifications.

The newly developed hack is referred to as a privilege escalation hack which means that hackers can get unauthorized access to the phone’s file system, which is normally protected. With this access system modifications can be made.

Hacks directed towards the S60 3rd Edition have been evolving for some time says F-Secure.
What makes this case different is that the new hack can be carried out without external devices or system knowledge by installing just one mobile application that is downloadable from the web.

Because the application can be considered as a hacking application, it is classified by F-Secure as riskware. F-Secure Mobile Security software identifies this application and removes it.

Commenting on the vulnerability, Jarno Niemelд, Senior Mobile Virus Researcher at F-Secure, said, “The application needs to be installed by the user, so this hacking tool is not a threat to the average mobile user. Because the application lets a user access the file system, we consider this as a security risk. Mobile virus source code could be updated to work on 3rd Edition phones and with the addition of this privilege escalation, hackers could do pretty much the same things as they do on 2nd Edition phones.”