Four Malware and a Funeral

This paper selects four malware targeting mobile phone platforms, namely Eeki, Yxes, Redoc and GameSat. They are currently among the most relevant malware in terms of prevalence, or because they are precursors of their kinds. A technical description is provided for each: how it infects the phone, its malicious payload and propagation mechanism. The descriptions in this paper are mostly new. The paper concludes on two common trends: the simplicity of such malware - only little skills are required to implement them - and their monetization. There are so many mobile phone users that malware authors have the opportunity to get quickly rich. So, in the end, the funeral is for the user's bank account...


This paper selects four malware targeting mobile phone platforms, namely Eeki, Yxes, Redoc and GameSat. They are currently among the most relevant malware in terms of prevalence, or because they are precursors of their kinds. A technical description is provided for each: how it infects the phone, its malicious payload and propagation mechanism. The descriptions in this paper are mostly new. The paper concludes on two common trends: the simplicity of such malware - only little skills are required to implement them - and their monetization. There are so many mobile phone users that malware authors have the opportunity to get quickly rich. So, in the end, the funeral is for the user's bank account...

References

SAR-SSI 2010