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PC-hopping mobile malware sighted

Crossing the divide

Virus writers have created a Symbian Trojan which also attempts to infect a user's Windows PC if he tries to read a phone memory card on his computer. Cardtrap-A targets Series 60 Symbian devices and spreads via either Bluetooth or by tricking users into downloading and executive hostile code from the web. After infecting a Series 60 smartphone, Cardtrap-A copies two Windows worms (Padobot-Z and Rays) to the memory card of the phone in an attempt to hop across onto other devices.

Padobot-Z is copied with autorun.inf file in a bid by VXers to make it run automatically if the card is inserted into a Windows PC. Rays attempts to masquerade as the System Folder in an attempt to trick users into executing the hostile code.

There are much easier ways to infect a Windows PC and its doubtful whether the Padobot-Z infection route will work atall since Windows generally doesn't support autorun from a memory card. In most respects Cardtrap-A is an unremarkable Symbian Trojan whose significance lies only in illustrating the emergence of new hacker tactics.

"The goal of the Trojan is most likely to cause user to infect his PC when he is trying disinfect his phone," writes anti-virus firm F-Secure. "A typical reaction of more advanced user who would encounter Trojan like Cardtrap, would be to insert the phone memory card to PC to copy file manager or disinfection tool to the card. Only this time a careless user might to get his PC infected in process." ®

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