James Delahunty
4 Apr 2005 9:39
A new mobile phone virus that is not in circulation has many people very concerned because of it spreading methods. Like the viruses we've seen before the Mabir worm also infects Symbian Series 60 phones. It spreads through Multimedia Messaging Service messages (MMS) and it doesn't just send itself to numbers in a user’s phone book, it also replies to any received messages. Mabir is essentially a variant of the Cabir worm, which spreads only using Bluetooth.
An analysis of the worm by anti-virus firm F-Secure suggests that Mabir-A is based on the same source code as Cabir and is likely the product of the same coder. Mabir-A spreads using Bluetooth the same way as early variants of Cabir. When it activates it searches for the first Bluetooth phone it finds and sends copies of itself to it. However it’s the MMS spreading function that has many experts worried.
AfterDawn reported on an earlier mobile phone virus called Commwarrior-A which also could spread using MMS messages but it only could send itself to entries in a user’s phone book, unlike Mabir-A that will reply to any message sent to your phone with a copy of itself. One thing mobile phone users obviously need to be concerned about with viruses like Mabir-A and Commwarrior-A is the cost of sending out MMS messages.
Source:
The Register