Mabir and Fontal

The past week has brought some new malware. A short time after the release of commwarrior, we've got a mass mms sending/Bluetooth worm . The bit where it sends its SIS file via MMS exploits the automatic running of install files under Symbian. If sent to any non-Symbian phone the result is simply the cost of the MMS message. I assumed from Vallez's notes on Cabir that he had decided against MMS as a transport mechanism in part because there is no way to tell if the recipient can run the worm. On Win32 , due to market penetration , it is very likely that addresses in the address book belong to other Win32 machines. Symbian phones do not currently have a similar market distribution.

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Font files that prevent warm rebooting. Troublesome. It used to be common for people with Psion handhelds to backup their data in case of dead or dying batteries. Restoring from a backup after a cold boot was a rare but occasionally necessary part of maintenance. Users doing the same today with Symbian smartphones is more than we can expect. Few users would know how or even if they have all the right equipment(cables, I/R port, mmc reader). Malware that kills its host doesn't travel very far.