Antivirus specialist SimWorks has identified the first Trojan that specifically targets antivirus software on mobile phones' Symbian operating system.
SimWorks CEO Aaron Davidson says the Trojan, METAL Gear.a, masquerades as a Symbian version of the popular Metal Gear Solid game.
"The METAL Gear Trojan is yet another example of the increasing sophistication of developers of malware for the Symbian platform," he adds.
"The METAL Gear Trojan uses the same icon disabling technique pioneered by the recent Skulls Trojan, this time to disable specific antivirus and file-browsing applications."
The Skulls.B Trojan, identified last month, carries the Cabir.B worm, which looks to spread to other phones within broadcasting range using Bluetooth.
Although the newest Trojan also installs a version of Cabir, Cabir does not seek to spread itself, but instead attempts to spread a further file called SEXXXY.sis to any Bluetooth-enabled phones in the vicinity.
If the user accepts and installs this file, it disables the Symbian application selection button on the phone.
"Once a user installs either METAL Gear.a or SEXXXY.a, they will find it quite difficult to repair," says Davidson. "This is particularly so in the case of METAL Gear.a as it effectively disables all of the tools on the phone that a user would need to actually undo the damage caused by the Trojan."
He says the METAL Gear and SEXXXY Trojans are included in a file called METAL gear.sis.
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