Kaspersky Lab today claimed discovery of the first virus designed to infect iPod portable media players. “The virus, which has been named Podloso, is a proof of concept program which does not pose a real threat,” Kaspersky Labs reports.
“The virus is a file which can be launched and run on an iPod. It should be stressed that in order for the virus to function, Linux has to be installed on the iPod. If the virus is installed to the iPod by the user, the virus then installs itself to the folder which contains program demo versions. Podloso cannot be launched automatically without user involvement,” Kaspersky Labs reports.
Kaspersky Labs reports, “Once launched, the virus scans the device’s hard disk and infects all executable .elf format files. Any attempt to launch these files will cause the virus to display a message on the screen which says ‘You are infected with Oslo the first iPodLinux Virus.'”
“Podloso is a typical proof of concept virus. Such viruses are created in order to demonstrate that it is possible to infect a specific platform. They do not have a malicious payload. Additionally, Podloso is unable to spread. The user has to save the virus to the iPod memory for the device to become infected. Podloso has no malicious payload, and does not present a real threat; it simply demonstrates that it is, theoretically possible to create malicious programs for such devices,” Kaspersky Labs reports.
Full article here.
So, first you install Linux on your iPod, then you find this virus file and run it, and then your iPod has a “virus” that’s unable to spread itself? If so, here’s the first Mac OS X “virus:” write an AppleScript that trashes a file, folder full of files or maybe even a whole drive – on your Mac. Save it as an app. Run it. Voila! Alert the headline writers and get the clueless AP reporters on the case!
Give us a break.
The only problem with this story is that clueless media types will write headlines that say:
First iPod Virus discovered!
dead on there. How many iPod customers are really going to install Linux on it? This really is nothing.
Um, it’s Linux that has the virus, then, not the iPod.
I would call all the steps necessary for this “virus” to work to be called a “pretty complex program installation” on an iPod.
Humans found to get Feline AIDS! First, they have to enter into a teleportation pod with an infected cat. Next, they must be transported across the room and reconstituted into a hybrid critter.
Warn all your friends of this imminent threat!
WTF!!
How retarded can you get?
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1. connect freshly set up Windows XP PC to the ‘net with no firewall or security. wait 10 minutes.
2. connect iPod to now virus-ridden PC.
3. copy C:\Windows directories over to iPod hard disk.
OMFG!!!! VIRUSES ON MY IPOD!!!11!!
can you say desparate? Good Lord
so, lemme see if i understand this… cuz to me, this looks more like an application, than a virus. something you have to download, install, then run. does this sound like “application” to anyone else?
and if it’s got linux installed on it, it’s not longer an /*\apple/*\ ipod, it’s a LiPod, so i think the headline should be changed to reflect the more accurate title.
–elija–
Someone please shut those guys up, they only spread FUD
Linux? LINUX? For the love of Gawd, who gives a shite about this supposed story? The world’s “journalists” (M$ apologists) are so eager for a scandal of ANY sort involving Apple products that even this crap/ordure/waste pronouncement makes MDN headlines. What’s next? Oh, I know:
“iPod Susceptible To Breakage When Attached To A PC Running BeOS and Dropped from Empire State Building.” News at 11!
I hear you can get viruses on a toaster this way too, provided that you have a toaster that runs ToasterLinux and you copy a virus file onto it.
Kaspersky Lab’s hands down beats all the other anti-virus software makers in catching viruses on Windoze PC’s.
Their success rate is near 100% compared to 80 something percent for the others.
What Kaspersky Lab’s sufferes from is a lack of OEM installs because they are a Russian company.
Security through obscurity will protect the Zune!
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I agree with “Darth Avenus”, this is NOT an iPod virus AT ALL! This is a Linux virus.
Why is this a story again?
This reminds me of the old George Carlin “news” story:
“A man has barricaded himself in his second story apartment, but he is unarmed and nobody is paying any attention to him.”
MDN, where is ‘Think before you click TM”?
‘Security through obscurity will protect the Zune!’
Unless you install Linux on it, apparently . . . ;p
I have discovered many viruses for Mac OS X. I can proove that Apple computer can be infected and spread the virus around the net. You don’t believe me?
Here are the steps:
1. Take a Mac with Mac OS X 10.4.9
2. Install Windows on it
3. Plug to the net and wait five minutes
Voila – first infected Mac!!!
Am I famous now?
Kaspersky’s crap it is.
JUST ANNOUNCED:
THE FIRST WAY TO PROTECT YOUR WINDOWS FILES FROM VIRUSES AND SPYWARE IN JUST 3 STEPS!!!!!
1.) Buy a Mac
2.) Transfer all files from windows computer to Mac.
3.) THROW AWAY WINDOWS COMPUTER!! (recycle please)
First off, if it’s proof of concept then it is not “discovered” but created. (morons can’t even get that one right)
Second, if it can’t spread then it is not a virus. Trojan horse maybe, but not a virus.
Third, if you have to install Linux then it is not an iPod virus/program/Trojan thingy. It’s a Linux thingy! Or Windows or Amiga or whatever.
I have a headache.
I wonder if it’s theoretically possible for a computer ‘security’ company to do an honest assessment of a so called threat. Sure, they’ve got the necessary disclaimer to cover themselves legally, but how can they honestly call it an iPod virus, as they do in their headline?
Right.
So first you make your iPod something it’s never supposed to be, (a Linux computer) then you manually install software it would never use. (a “virus”)
Yea, the other day, I flew my iPod like a paper airplane off of a highway overpass and then the OS crashed when it flew into an oncoming 16 wheeler. That iPod OS just isn’t very stable is it?
It’s quite a stretch, eh?
Funny.
Funnysad, really.
Funny that it’s so totally benign and doesn’t even fit the generally accepted definition of “virus”.
And sad that it will be promulgated by those who don’t know any better (mainstream press, I’m lookin’ straight atcha…)
I’ll be shocked and pleasantly surprised if this doesn’t get some sort of out-of-proportion, run-for-the-hills response in some media arenas.