Eavesdropping Trojans Used In Cell Phone Spying Case
Think twice about letting strangers use your cell phone for a few seconds.
A story broke out recently in Israel about the arrest of 22 private investigators over the wide-use of eavesdropping Trojan horses for cell phones. This one also has an interesting solution for discovering the attack.
“Its capabilities vary from recording conversations and opening the microphone to listening to the room the phone is in.”Reportedly, the Trojan horse, called “SpyPhone,” costs (depending on target phone) between $1,500 and $2,500. Its capabilities vary from recording conversations and opening the microphone to listening to the room the phone is in.
The technology is available for multiple phones, from an ancient Nokia 5500 to a modern iPhone. While it is obvious the capabilities of the Trojan horse change with how advanced the phone is, the attack vectors seem to be human — social engineering.
It has been reported that automatic attacks have been used previously by use of software vulnerabilities, and some are still rumored. However, that does not seem to be the case here. The infection vectors varied from asking someone for his phone for a few seconds, sending an SMS and receiving a download link, to downloading it directly. Other approaches, such as SMS and MMS lures to get the target user to click on a link, are also suspected. […]