Researchers to demo rootkit on Android phone

[Viktor 669]

Security researchers plan to demonstrate a rootkit running on an Android-based smartphone that could give an intruder full access to all the functions of the device:

Nicholas Percoco and Christian Papathanasiou are scheduled to make the demonstration at the Defcon security conference in Las Vegas in July. The researchers, from security firm Trustwave, will show that the kernel-level rootkit is capable of reading the text messages on an Android phone, making unauthorised long-distance calls and pinpointing the device's location via GPS, according to the conference programme.

The malware is activated by an incoming call from a 'trigger number', upon which it sends a shell to the attacker, allowing them administrative access via a 3G or Wi-Fi connection. A shell is a piece of software providing an interface to an operating system kernel.

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