Fake iPhone 5 Email Announcements Lead to Malware

iPhone 5 rumors abound and cyber criminals are taking advantage of that by spreading fake email announcements that lead recipients to malware distribution websites.

According to security researchers from email security vendor AppRiver who intercepted such a campaign, the rogue messages bear subjects like "Finally. The amazing iPhone 5. Now available in black edition."

As suggested, the emails contain a fake announcement about the alleged availability of Apple's next generation iPhone device.

"Introducing the iPhone that lets you do more than ever. And do it amazingly faster. Launch and switch between applications quickly. Larger display, transparent mode, better cloud integration.

"Shoot, edit and share video like never before. Slimmer, faster and sleeker. Discover many more features that make iPhone 5G the best iPhone yet," the appealing sales pitch reads.

In light of the recent Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) 2011, where the iPhone maker revealed iOS 5, the next version of its operating system for iDevices, people might be tempted to believe fake rumors and click on advertised links.

That would be a very bad decision, because according to AppRiver researcher Fred Touchette "The ad is [...] riddled with links that point to an exploited web page that hosts a file named iphone5.gif.exe. This file is meant to infect PCs in order to create a backdoor on the victims' machines."

The file is a trojan known by various names including Zapchast and Eldorado which connects to an IRC server and awaits for instructions from attackers. At the time of writing this article, the threat has a fairly good detection rate on Virus Total, so users are strongly encouraged to keep their antivirus programs up to date in order to stay protected.

Dealing with links included in emails should always be done with caution, regardless if the email appears to originate from a trusted sender or not.