05-04-2010, 07:38 PM
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A Seminar report On
Cellular Virus Attack
Computer Engineering
By
Mr. Pandav Milind M.
Under guidance of
Prof. Anarse B.V.
Prof. Kharade S.S.
Department of Computer Engineering.
INDIRA GANDHI POLYTECHNIC
Belwandi (Sugar)-413702
2007-2008
ABSTRACT
Viruses in the cell phones arena come late but there are many parallels between computers and cell phones in terms of malicious code. As web integration was added in cell phones, embedded scripts, Java code and other active content opened the way for far more sophisticated and damaging attacks in cell phones. Java enabled phones are arriving with sophisticated features. So, it is easier to attach any malicious threat with these files. The first cell phone virus been sited is Cabir-A. Cabir-A is a virus written specifically for Nokia Series 60 mobile phones running the Symbian operating system.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I am grateful to Mr. Kharade S.S., faculty in Computer Science for guiding me and providing important materials for the preparation of technical seminars.
I am also thankful to Mr. Anarse B.V. coordinator of technical seminars, for giving me the opportunity to present my topic in the technical seminars.
Finally I thank to my friends, for there continued drive for better quality in everything that happens at Seminar. This report is a small contribution towards the greater goal.
Pandav Milind M.
(T.Y.Computer)
INDEX
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
ABSTRACT iii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT iv
TABLE OF CONTENTS v
1. INTRODUCTION 1
2. VIRUS 2
2.1 MOBILE VIRUS 2
2.2 CELL PHONE VIRUS 2
3. WAP SECUIRITY 3
3.1 WAP GATEWAY SECURITY 4
4. PC VIRUS VS CELLPHONE VIRUS 6
5. HOW CELLPHONE VIRUS CAME INTO MARKET 7
6. MOTIVES TO CREATE VIRUS 7
7. VIRUS ACTIONS 8
8. CURRENT THREAT 8
9. CONCLUSION 10
10. REFERENCES 11
1. INTRODUCTION
Viruses in the cell-phone arena are new but there are many parallels between computers and mobile phones in terms of malicious code. Now-a-days thereâ„¢s an explosive impact on users as there is a fully-established virus writing community that has effective virus toolkits, better technology, far superior knowledge and skill, and far greater communication within the community. The parallels begin with the client technology. Early email client software was very basic, doing little more than passing plain text from one user to another. Attachments were added, which introduced the first vulnerability. As web integration was added, embedded scripts, Java code and other active content opened the way for far more sophisticated and damaging attacks. Simple text-based mail is substituted by SMS. Now attachments substitute picture, video transfer and MP3. Java enabled phones are arriving with sophisticated features. So, it is easier to attach any malicious threat with these files. The first cell-phone virus been sited is Cabir-A. Cabir-A is a virus written specifically for Nokia Series 60 mobile phones running the Symbian operating system. The virus spreads as a .sis package, named as Caribe.sis. This paper will discuss the virus affecting the cellular phones and what all remedies can be taken to overcome this problem.
2. VIRUS
Computer program that is designed to replicate itself by copying itself into the other programs stored in a computer. It may be benign or have a negative effect, such as causing a program to operate incorrectly or corrupting a computer's memory.
2.1 MOBILE VIRUS
The viruses for WAP-enabled mobile devices are the mobile virus. Viruses in the mobile arena are new but there are many parallels between email and mobile in terms of malicious code. In many ways, the threats to mobile phones, network-enabled organizers and other mobile appliances are new where threats to personal computers were five years ago. This time, however, we face an explosive impact on users as there is a fully-established virus writing community that has effective virus toolkits, better technology, far superior knowledge and skill, and far greater communication within the community.
2.2 CELL PHONE VIRUS
The use of WAP-enabled cellular phones is booming. Cellular phones with support for WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) allow users to access a wide variety of services. Early client software was very basic, doing little more than passing plain text from one user to another. Attachments were added, which introduced the first vulnerability.
3. WAP SECUIRITY
In case of WAP security ,From the outset, vendors of mobile phones and WAP servers have ensured that much consideration was given to confidentiality and privacy issues for WAP data, as well as to user authentication. Add this to the fact that data integrity checking has been taken into account, and one could be forgiven for thinking that the WAP infrastructure WAS already secure enough.
However, we believe that there are still a number of security issues to be resolved. Firstly, there is no content security for the WAP infrastructure [1], and yet this is where one of the biggest threats typically lies. As we have already seen in the desktop-PC world, content-related security is the single biggest security issue for home and corporate users alike. Even now, we receive an average of seven new PC virus samples every day, with actions that range from benign to Potentially Catastrophic. In the telecommunications world, content has traditionally been speech “ with no security risks involved. Now the content is code, and the whole picture changes.
The WAP infrastructure has not taken executable mobile content “ such as downloadable programs“ into account from a content-security point of view. The WAP content requested by the mobile device and returned by the origin server can, for example, contain WML cards, which may display text or pictures, working similarly to HTML pages on the Web. The pages can also contain script written with WML Script language “ which is a close relative to the JavaScript scripting language. As a side note, several PC viruses written with JavaScript were discovered during 1999 and 2000.
3.1 WAP GATEWAY SECURITY
The first, and biggest, step in delivering content security into the WAP world is a gateway-level solution for protecting the WAP infrastructure. A WML script scanner is integrated with the WAP gateway, which detects and removes malicious code before it is passed to usersâ„¢ devices. Gateway protection will also ensure that when a new virus is found, counter-measures to provide protection can be developed quickly and distributed over the Internet-based framework to WAP servers worldwide.
Fig 1 schematic illustration of the basic WAP infrastructure
.
4. PC VIRUS VS CELLPHONE VIRUS
There are many parallels between computers and mobile phones in terms of malicious code. The parallels begin with the client technology. Early email client software was very basic, doing little more than passing plain text from one user to another. Attachments were added, which introduced the first vulnerability. As web integration was added, embedded scripts, Java code and other active content opened the way for far more sophisticated and damaging attacks. Now that email clients are tightly integrated with the computer operating system (particularly in the Windows environment) the vulnerabilities [2] have extended much further.
There is no question that the introduction of Java and other active code will impact security and reliability. In the early days of Java on the web, restrictions were placed on the Java Virtual Machines that ran within the user's browser to prevent the code accessing the user's hard disk or connecting across a network (known as a 'sandbox' approach). A similar approach is going to be necessary with Java on mobiles to prevent phones calling out to premium rate numbers, proving free calls to 'phreakers' or other fraud.
As WML also increases in sophistication, so do the opportunities for creating more advanced, malicious code. When the first WAP virus hits, it could spread as fast as or faster than similar PC viruses.
5. HOW CELLPHONE VIRUS CAME INTO MARKET
First malicious mobile phone virus which only affects phone running the Symbian operating system, spreads via an illegally modified version of the mobile phone game Mosquitos, calling itself Mosquito v2. It does not attack the mobile phone system; rather it sends off numerous SMS messages to premium rate phone numbers without the user's consent. Costs for these texts will show up on the users' phone bill.
Victims of this virus have knowingly downloaded the illegal copy of the Mosquitos game to play on their mobiles; however they were unaware that the Trojan was lurking within the game and sending text messages whilst they played Mosquitos. Nokia which is one of the phone manufacturers that uses the Symbian OS has had numerous contacts from users claiming to have lost a lot of money as a result of this malicious virus. Symbian has advised users that the virus will be deleted from their phones as soon as they delete the Mosquito game.
6. MOTIVES TO CREATE VIRUS
Viruses are written for a variety of reasons, such as curiosity, a challenge, or to gain wider attention. Some virus writer groups are known to target any new platform just is able to say they were the first to write a virus for this platform. At the time of writing, the WAP infrastructure is still emerging and the uptake of WAP devices is still increasing. Currently therefore, WAP devices do not present a big enough target and so no WAP-specific viruses have yet been seen. However, a growing threat is coming in from the horizon as the power of WAP devices is set to increase dramatically with future WAP protocol versions.
7. VIRUS ACTIONS
WAP needs more functionality in order to be useful and for it to really take off the ground. Unfortunately, more functionality means more risks. Such functions include making phone calls, accessing and modifying phone book data, and sending Short Messaging Service (SMS) messages.
With such functionality available to WML scripts, in the future it is not difficult to imagine a virus which would spread by accessing your phone book and sending a page link to itself in SMS text messages to all the phone numbers found within. subsequently, the virus could do damage by either deleting or modifying the phone book, or by starting to make phone calls to pay-per-minute numbers “ in the middle of the night. With such a feature, virus writers could easily make money with their viruses “ thus providing an obvious motivation.
8. CURRENT THREAT
8.1.1CABIR
It is the first mobile worm for N-Gage and Series 60 phones [3]. This mobile worm Symb/Cabir-A is a worm written specifically for Nokia Series 60 mobile phones running the Symbian operating system. The worm spreads as a .sis package, named as Caribe.sis.
Those files are installed onto the system/Apps/Directory on the phone itself. The worm runs every time the device is turned on or restarted, and worse, once Symb/Cabir-A is installed, it'll attempt to send itself to other Series 60 phones whenever your Bluetooth is activated. There are some measures that can be taken to avoid the worm, though, and even if you get it, it can be deleted. So it should be turned off the Bluetooth whenever it's not needed, and it should not turned on it on in crowded areas for long periods of time.
CABIR REQUIRES
approving connection from unknown device
approving receiving a file from unknown device
Approving installation of unknown application received from unknown device.
Symbian operating system [4] is used in the Nokia 60 series cell phones. SymbianOS simply doesn't install things automatically. Users will always have to confirm installation. Itâ„¢s exactly the same as with Linux: you have to give the file required permissions and then consciously confirm its installation. And the same will apply toSymbianOS.Before installing the Cabir three warnings and required confirmations are asked. Itâ„¢s like if somebody sent you FORMAT.EXE (renamed to Cabir.exe) and asked you to run it and then to answer "YES" to the "Do you really want to format your C: drive" message changed to "Do you like me if you run it and answer YES then it will format your pc .CABIR is just like this.Cabir is NOT a virus. It is people who confirm three warnings about unknown, possibly insecure file - approve connection, allow receipment, and install it - who are mentally infected. It doesn't take Cabir to damage such people's phone or computer those are aware of it. It cannot install automatically, and that's something we touched upon with the "If you're downloading what you believe is a Series 60 version of Tetris and you see the file is Caribe.sis or another suspicious name, don't install it." sentence. It needs confirmation to install.
9. CONCLUSION
The problem is that Cabir doesn't match virus definition. It cannot install and it cannot run without user's knowledge and conscious acceptance.But it's the beginning of the attempts to try to create viruses that will ruin cell phone. It is people who confirm three warnings about unknown, possibly insecure file - approve connection, allow receipment, and install it - who are mentally infected.
10. REFERENCES
[1].http://itsecuritypapers/insl1.htm
[2].http://virusthreatcentervirus.aspx
[3].Symantec Virus Dictionary
[4].http://gosymbian.com
[5].http://allaboutsymbianforum
