Kaspersky Discovers Podloso: First iPod Virus

Apple products often claim they are so secure that they cannot be infected by viruses. After news of the Leap-A or Oompa Loompa worm which was the first known worm to infect Mac computers, and the story about Apple shipping video iPods with Windows RavMonE.exe virus; Kaspersky discovers Podloso, which they claim is the first virus designed to infect iPod portable media players.

Kaspersky says that Podloso is a typical proof of concept virus, which is created in order to demonstrate that it is possible to infect a specific platform.

“The virus is a file which can be launched and run on an iPod. It should be stressed that in order for the virus to function, Linux has to be installed on the iPod. If the virus is installed on the iPod by the user, the virus then installs itself to the folder which contains program demo versions. Podloso cannot be launched automatically without user involvement.

Once launched, the virus scans the device’s hard disk and infects all executable .elf format files. Any attempt to launch these files will cause the virus to display a message on the screen which says “You are infected with Oslo the first iPodLinux Virus”.

It wont be long before you get more viruses designed to infect your ipod!