Malware found on new Vodafone smartphone

Posted on 10 Mar 2010 at 11:41

The last thing you expect to find on your new, boxed mobile phone is Windows malware, but that's exactly what a Panda Security employee found when she bought a new HTC Magic from Vodafone Spain.

When she opened and connect the phone to her PC, her anti-virus software detected malware including the Mariposa botnet client as well as the Conficker worm and Lineage password stealer.

None of these malicious programs are compatible with the Android operating system used by the Magic, but the phones come with a FAT32 formatted microSD card, which can be mounted, read and written to by any Windows PC.

Pedro Bustamante of Panda said "I don’t think this has to do with factory settings, but rather with poor QA process of refurbished phones".

Vodafone UK has released the following statement: “The device involved in the incident was purchased by a customer of Vodafone Spain and is currently being investigated. The early indications are that this was an isolated local incident.”

The most probable explanation is that the phone or memory card are either refurbished or were used as demonstration models by staff in the shop where the phone was bought.

This means that Vodafone customers in Spain and in the rest of Europe don't need to worry about any risk carried by their phone's firmware. Unfortunately, it also shows that you can't necessarily trust that products bought from your local mobile phone retailer will necessarily be free of malicious software.

The best way to ensure your PC's safety is to use up-to-date anti-virus software so that, like Panda's employee, you'll catch anything nasty before it gets onto your system. For free protection, we like Microsoft's Security Essentials.

Author: Kat Orphanides

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