Developer Unleashes Palm Trojan Horse Program

Computerworld - An independent software developer for Palm Inc. computers has created a Trojan horse program that can wipe all the files off the handheld device.
Julia Rodriguez, a spokeswoman for Santa Clara, Calif.-based Palm, acknowledged the existence of the program, which first surfaced two weeks ago, and said the company doesn't know of any "reports that any Palm user has been affected" by the program.
The developer, who goes by the name "Ardiri" on a Palm user site (www.palmstation.com), said he designed the program to "clean up any redundant data files." Instead, according to the discussion thread on the Web site, the Trojan horse, which masquerades as a game called "Liberty," can wipe out all the files on the infected device, once executed. Ardiri said he had no intention of widely releasing the program but did provide copies to "a few friends."
After that, Ardiri wrote in a posting on the site, the Trojan horse started to proliferate throughout the Palm underground. Ardiri wrote that after realizing the potential extent of that distribution - the Palm developer community numbers more than 80,000 - he posted warnings about it on PalmStation.com and PalmGear.com.
"After many hours of thinking, I regret even considering what could be done with this application," Ardiri wrote, "and giving it to anybody on Palmchat was a big mistake."
Rodriguez dismissed any impact the program might have on Palm users. "All you have to do to get rid of it is a 'hot reset' and resync with your PC" to remove the program from an infected handheld device, Rodriguez said.
She added that Palm is well aware "that any electronic device is susceptible" to hacking and that the company is "working to make sure any such attempts are detected and intercepted and avoided." Rodriguez declined to provide specific details.
Network Associates Inc., an antivirus software company in Santa Clara, said it has developed and is distributing a new line of VirusScan Wireless security products that should provide protection for Palm computers and handheld devices running Microsoft Corp.'s Windows CE or Symbian Ltd.'s Epoc operating system.
IDefense Intelligence Services, an Internet security firm in Fairfax, Va., said in an analysis of the Palm Trojan horse that security will be needed as attacks on handheld devices proliferate.
In its analysis, iDefense said the appearance of the Liberty Trojan horse "fulfills experts' predictions that the Palms . . . would soon be hit by a virus or a Trojan. . . . Either virus writers will simply change the name and icon,disguising the Trojan, or they will borrow elements of its code to create a more dangerous program."
The statement continued, "Owners of [personal digital assistants] and other handheld devices are urged to exercise extreme caution and explore the feasibility of employing antivirus software as it becomes available."

Read more about Mobile and Wireless in Computerworld's Mobile and Wireless Topic Center.