New Malicious Worm Steal Bank Information on Jailbroken iPhones. Apple: We Told You Not To JailBreak

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Earlier this month, the wallpaper changing ikee worm sparked a concern that bad guys will inevitably use the SSH vulnerability to do something bad with your stolen personal information. This week the inevitable has occurred. Jailbroken iPhone users in the Netherlands may have their bank information stolen as they login from their infected iPhones. The worm throws up a purported ING login page. Once the hackers get the bank details they can theoretically steal the money in the bank account.

Currently this situation is isolated in the Netherlands. Paul Ducklin, head of technology in Sophos Asia Pacific, reported that this malicious worm can even change the default password to “ohshit” on the SSH, and thus creating a problem for infected iPhone users as they attempt to remove the worm. The worm can also infect other vulnerable jailbroken iPhones on the same Wi-Fi network. It is also reported this latest malicious worm connects to a web based command and control center in Lithuania.

Apple spokesperson Natalie Harrison responds on The Loop,

“The worm affects only a very specific set of iPhone users who have jail broken their iPhones and hacked it with unauthorized software. As we’ve said before, the vast majority of customers do not jailbreak their iPhones, and for good reason. These hacks not only violate the warranty, they will also cause the iPhone to become unstable and not work reliably.”

So there you have it. Apple basically says “We told you so,” as they consider this is a case isolated just to jailbroken iPhone. Malicious worms like this one may actually refrain people from jailbreaking their iPhones and further Apple’s no-jailbreaking agenda.

Only Jailbroken iPhones with default SSH passwords are affected by the worm. Thus it is important to change your SSH password right now if you don’t want to be the next victim.

For those with jailbroken iPhones make sure you know exactly what’s going on before jailbraking your iPhone. Take precautions to protect your iPhone’s security. If you have an iPhone jailbroken for you by someone else, make sure your default SSH password has been changed. If you don’t know how to change it. Here’s how.

This is a post by The Apps Machine