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'Metal Gear' Symbian OS trojan disables anti-virus softwareBy Larry Garfield, Tuesday 21 December 2004
A new trojan found for Series 60 smartphones masquerades as a port of a PC game, but actually infects the phone and others around it, anti-virus software or no.

Security experts at anti-virus company SimWorks have discovered a new trojan horse program for Series 60 smartphones that they've dubbed "METAL Gear.a" that uses a two-pronged attack to infect both the local phone and nearby phones via Bluetooth.

METAL Gear.a purports to be a Symbian OS-port of the PC and console game title "Metal Gear Solid" with an installation file named METAL Gear.sis. When installed, however, the trojan immediately disables specified anti-virus software on the phone, as well as all file explorers and various other applications. It then installs a variant of Cabir.c, the previously reported "Skulls" trojan.

Cabir.c will then start scanning for nearby phones via Bluetooth and, if it finds one, send the other phone an installation file called SEXXXY.sis. If the receiver accepts SEXXY.sis, that portion of the trojan will disable the "select" button on the targeted unit.

SimWorks has already released an updated version of its own anti-virus program to detect and block METAL Gear.a, and other anti-virus companies are likely to follow suit. So far, SimWorks has not released any removal instructions for users who are infected.
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