Podloso - first virus for iPod

Technology news and updates blog article

9th April 2007

“Kaspersky Lab” has warned users of the appearance of first virus, infecting music players iPod. However, it`s no need to worry - the virus known as Podloso, is not a real threat because it is the member of “conceptual” viruses. The virus discovered by experts of “Kaspersky Lab”, is a file that can be run and work at music players iPod. Operating system Linux must be installed on iPod player in order the virus can operate. After being written on iPod of the user, the malicious program installs itself to a folder, which contains demo versions of programs. Automatic starting of Podloso is impossible, only user himself can start it. If the owner of player runs malicious file Podloso scans the hard disk of the player and infects all executables in .elf format. When a user then tries to run these files there appears a message “You are infected with Oslo the first iPodLinux Virus”. Podloso virus belongs to malicious software of proof-of-concept class or the so-called “conceptual” viruses. Such programs are usually elaborated to prove the possibility of infection either, one or another platform which is new to virus developers and do not bring malicious potential. Besides, Podloso can not be distributed itself: to infect the device the virus need to be written in memory of the player by user himself. Thus, the first virus for iPod music player has no malicious functionality, and brings no risk to owners of iPod players, but proofs the possibility of writing malicious software for these devices in the future.