Worm Prompts Jailbroken iPhones To Grab Your Banking Data

The phrase “putting a genie into the bottle” comes to mind as reports surfaced Monday of a malicious offspring of a prank aimed at owners of unsecure jailbroken iPhones. Dubbed the “Duh” worm, the latest security threat targets the financial data of customers using online bank ING Direct.

The worm redirects ING Direct users to a phishing site. Those phones also come under the control of a botnet in Lithuania, reports said. The attack searches for iPhones that use the default secure shell (SSH) root password of “alpine.” The jailbreaking process often requires a person to install SSH, but many fail to change the default – opening the door wide for malicious hacks.

The worm currently focuses on jailbroken iPhones in the Netherlands, but the threat also touches on Portugal, Australia, Austria and Hungary, according to reports. The “Duh” iPhone worm infects jailbroken iPhones that use the same Wi-Fi hotspot, security researchers said.

Earlier this month, the 21-year-old Australian hacker who released the initial innocuous iPhone worm came forward, describing it as “an experiment that got out of hand.” Ashley Towns said he created the worm after reading a blog urging iPhone owners to change passwords. He worm changes the wallpaper of unsecure jailbroken iPhones to that of ’80s rocker Rick Astley. Towns said he didn’t “think about legal consequences at the time. I honestly never expected it to go this far.” Towns reported receiving death threats and job offers as a result of his worm. Unlike Towns’ worm, which the hacker thought might infect 10 or 15 people, the latest version could touch the lives of thousands who own jailbroken iPhones, security researchers said.

Security researcher urge owners of jailbroken phones to change their SSH password if they are still using the default code.

Days after Towns released his “rickrolling” iPhone worm, another hacker introduced another iPhone using the same SSH door but with more malicious intent. The new malware, dubbed iPhone/Privacy.A by Mac security firm Intego steals your contacts, e-mail and other files.

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[Via BBC, The Register, AppleInsider]

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