The iPhone 5 virus

Most rumors have the iPhone 5 arriving sometime in September. Today we received a malicious email that exploits the hype surrounding the not-so-imminent release. The email describes the “iPhone 5G S” (hope Apple is not taking notes). The text and forged images group together several of the rumors about the new device – slimmer, faster, bigger display, better cloud integration. And of course the big news – the “iPhone 5G S” is available in black!

All the images and links seem to point to an image file “iphone5.gif” – which is actually “iphone5.gif.exe”. Clicking pretty anywhere in the email will lead to the download of the file complete with apple icon:

The malware is detected by Commtouch’s Command Antivirus as:

W32/Renamed_mIRC.gen!Eldorado.

Closer examination of the link provided in the email revealed that the malware had been hidden inside a compromised legitimate site. 

Malware, spam and scam outbreaks that exploit Apple product releases can now be expected since we observed similar attacks preceding both the iPhone 4 and the iPad 2.