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SmartPhoneToday > News > First Pocket PC Virus Uncovered

First Pocket PC Virus Uncovered

By James Alan Miller
July 19, 2004

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The first Virus, WinCE4.Dust, designed to infect Pocket PC handhelds has been discovered. The virus was created by someone named Ratter, a member of the same group, 29A, that sent out the first worm, EPOC.Cabir, that was capable of infecting Symbian-based smartphone's a few weeks back.

Luckily, Ratter only sent the virus to anit-virus vendors, claiming that it, like EPOC.Cabir, was created as a proof of concept, demonstrating that a Pocket PC virus could be created and then spread. So in the words of one anti-virus vendor, you'll be unlikely to run into WinCE.Dust in the wild.

Also, unlike most worms and viri, WinCE4.Dust asks a Pocket PC owner if it can be spread (see image). According to anti-virus vendor F-Secures' website, WinCE4.Dust attempts to infect all EXE files in the current directory. It only infects files that are bigger than 4096 bytes and have not been infected yet. As an infection marker the virus writes the string 'atar' to the Windows Version field of the EXE header.



Related Links:

  • Worm Hooks Symbian Smartphones
  • Learn the Basics of Handheld Security
  • Symantec Inoculates Handhelds Against Viruses
  • PDA Security 101
  • Kaspersky Updates PDA Security Application

     
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