14 DAY TRIAL // After the first worm able to 'leap' from a desktop computer to a wireless device that runs the Windows Mobile OS, a new threat is now targeting mobile phones.
Kaspersky announced the trojan SMS.J2ME.RedBrowser.a, the first malicious cod that attacks not only smartphones, but every mobile device able to run Java (J2ME) applications. "The important thing about this Trojan is that it can get to any device that runs J2ME," said Shane Coursen, a Kaspersky senior technical analyst. A good portion of cell phones use Java for games, and some of their other programs," Shane Coursen, a Kaspersky senior technical analyst, was quoted as saying by InformationWeek. The Trojan spreads in the guise of a program called "RedBrowser", which allegedly enables the user to visit WAP sites without using a WAP connection.
In fact, the Trojan only sends SMSs to premium rate numbers. The user is charged $5 - $6 per SMS.
According to the Kaspersky site, the Trojan is a Java application, a JAR format archive. The file may be called "redbrowser.jar", and is 54481 bytes in size. The malicious code can be downloaded to the victim handset either via the Internet (from a WAP site) or via Bluetooth or a personal computer. The archive contains the following files
FS.class FW.class icon.png logo101.png logo128.pnh M.class SM.class
Kaspersky's engineers say that the Trojan can be easily removed with the utilities already installed on the phone.
Image credits: Kaspersky Lab