Security firm publishes whitepaper on BlackBerry Trojan

Posted
by
Kyle McInnes
on March 14, 2008, at 7:12 AM
in News
. Tags: , , , , , , .
Comments: 11 responses
11 Comments

A real trojan horseThe folks at Tech2 posted about a white paper published on BlackBerry security, namely what is lawfully interceptible, and how to avoid hacking. Part of the paper is based on a prototype trojan that could be delivered to a BlackBerry on BES and leave the company’s server unguarded. It was developed by an information security company, who released the information to RIM before taking it public. The trojan, called BBProxy, works by allowing a hacker to essentially piggyback on any connections made to BES. Once installed on a BlackBerry, the hacker can connect to it via computer and have complete access to everything the BlackBerry connects to. The article does include some simple steps administrators can take to prevent it from working, but fair warning: it is heavy on IT-speak. Earlier security reports acknowledged the threat of Trojans on BlackBerry, but we’ve yet to see an instance in the wild…

Permalink

Post Comment

  • Ummm…

    This isn’t really news… this was first reported Aug 2006. Here’s another article with the same “hack” described:
    http://www.pdastreet.com/articles/2006/8/2006-8-9-BBProxy-Hack-Exposes.html

    RIM shot this “hack” down years ago so I would hardly call it news.

    The article you linked to actually plagiarized the site I linked above word for word.

    Check “The BlackBerry server and mail server should also not be permitted to open arbitrary connections to the internal network or Internet, and internal users should not be permitted to open arbitrary connections to either the BlackBerry server or mail server. ”

    and check “There is something like 250 plus commands that allow the administrator to have full control over how the BlackBerry as a platform is used by the users within the BlackBerry Enterprise Server community. ” versus “”There is something like 250 plus commands that allow the administrator to have full control over how the BlackBerry as a platform is used by the users with in the BlackBerry Enterprise Server community,” Totzke said .”

    I’d say pull the article before you embarrass yourself. Why did my first comment including this data get pulled? There were about 5 responses to this that disappeared.

  • Ummm…

    This isn’t really news… this was first reported Aug 2006. Here’s another article with the same “hack” described:
    http://www.pdastreet.com/articles/2006/8/2006-8-9-BBProxy-Hack-Exposes.html

    RIM shot this “hack” down years ago so I would hardly call it news.

    The article you linked to actually plagiarized the site I linked above word for word.

    Check “The BlackBerry server and mail server should also not be permitted to open arbitrary connections to the internal network or Internet, and internal users should not be permitted to open arbitrary connections to either the BlackBerry server or mail server. ”

    and check “There is something like 250 plus commands that allow the administrator to have full control over how the BlackBerry as a platform is used by the users within the BlackBerry Enterprise Server community. ” versus “”There is something like 250 plus commands that allow the administrator to have full control over how the BlackBerry as a platform is used by the users with in the BlackBerry Enterprise Server community,” Totzke said .”

    I’d say pull the article before you embarrass yourself. Why did my first comment including this data get pulled? There were about 5 responses to this that disappeared.

  • Ummm…

    This isn’t really news… this was first reported Aug 2006. Here’s another article with the same “hack” described:
    http://www.pdastreet.com/articles/2006/8/2006-8-9-BBProxy-Hack-Exposes.html

    RIM shot this “hack” down years ago so I would hardly call it news.

    The article you linked to actually plagiarized the site I linked above word for word.

    Check “The BlackBerry server and mail server should also not be permitted to open arbitrary connections to the internal network or Internet, and internal users should not be permitted to open arbitrary connections to either the BlackBerry server or mail server. ”

    and check “There is something like 250 plus commands that allow the administrator to have full control over how the BlackBerry as a platform is used by the users within the BlackBerry Enterprise Server community. ” versus “”There is something like 250 plus commands that allow the administrator to have full control over how the BlackBerry as a platform is used by the users with in the BlackBerry Enterprise Server community,” Totzke said .”

    I’d say pull the article before you embarrass yourself. Why did my first comment including this data get pulled? There were about 5 responses to this that disappeared.

  • Ummm…

    This isn’t really news… this was first reported Aug 2006. Here’s another article with the same “hack” described:
    http://www.pdastreet.com/articles/2006/8/2006-8-9-BBProxy-Hack-Exposes.html

    RIM shot this “hack” down years ago so I would hardly call it news.

    The article you linked to actually plagiarized the site I linked above word for word.

    Check “The BlackBerry server and mail server should also not be permitted to open arbitrary connections to the internal network or Internet, and internal users should not be permitted to open arbitrary connections to either the BlackBerry server or mail server. ”

    and check “There is something like 250 plus commands that allow the administrator to have full control over how the BlackBerry as a platform is used by the users within the BlackBerry Enterprise Server community. ” versus “”There is something like 250 plus commands that allow the administrator to have full control over how the BlackBerry as a platform is used by the users with in the BlackBerry Enterprise Server community,” Totzke said .”

    I’d say pull the article before you embarrass yourself. Why did my first comment including this data get pulled? There were about 5 responses to this that disappeared.

  • http://www.blackberrycool.com/ BlackBerry Cool Simon

    Your original comment was on the linked post from November ( http://www.blackberrycool.com/2007/11/28/006149/ ).

    Thanks for noticing the plagiarism there, we’ll be sure to let the guys at PDAStreet know.

    As for newsworthiness, I think the real news is more about APPIN posting a Whitepaper about BBProxy, which we covered when it initially came out ( http://www.blackberrycool.com/2006/08/14/002133/ ), rather than about BBProxy itself.

  • http://www.blackberrycool.com BlackBerry Cool Simon

    Your original comment was on the linked post from November ( http://www.blackberrycool.com/2007/11/28/006149/ ).

    Thanks for noticing the plagiarism there, we’ll be sure to let the guys at PDAStreet know.

    As for newsworthiness, I think the real news is more about APPIN posting a Whitepaper about BBProxy, which we covered when it initially came out ( http://www.blackberrycool.com/2006/08/14/002133/ ), rather than about BBProxy itself.

  • http://www.videos4blackberry.info/ Bla1ze

    Hmm…I find it rather weird that this information comes from a site from India, especially with the current BlackBerry issues in India atm…this breaks down to India is having issues with RIM atm..and this Trojan news comes from out of nowhere again..the last trojan on BB information was from 2006…as prev stated so this is pulling up some old crap

    Food for thought if ya ask me..especially with the plagerism claims as well.

  • http://www.videos4blackberry.info/ Bla1ze

    Hmm…I find it rather weird that this information comes from a site from India, especially with the current BlackBerry issues in India atm…this breaks down to India is having issues with RIM atm..and this Trojan news comes from out of nowhere again..the last trojan on BB information was from 2006…as prev stated so this is pulling up some old crap

    Food for thought if ya ask me..especially with the plagerism claims as well.

  • http://www.videos4blackberry.info Bla1ze

    Hmm…I find it rather weird that this information comes from a site from India, especially with the current BlackBerry issues in India atm…this breaks down to India is having issues with RIM atm..and this Trojan news comes from out of nowhere again..the last trojan on BB information was from 2006…as prev stated so this is pulling up some old crap

    Food for thought if ya ask me..especially with the plagerism claims as well.

  • axxo1

    This article was posted in order to make the people understand that blackberry hacking has started! Up till now except few geeky people, rest of the world was in the impression that Blackberry is most secure mobile device. This whitepaper was to make everyone understand it is not so.

    What you people can best do is comment on what initiatives to inform the users are taking place and slinging it with plagiarism. Rather than you stepping forward and making your findings addressed to all, about say for example the blackberry hacking, what you can best do is come out and find something to castigate upon.

  • axxo1

    This article was posted in order to make the people understand that blackberry hacking has started! Up till now except few geeky people, rest of the world was in the impression that Blackberry is most secure mobile device. This whitepaper was to make everyone understand it is not so.

    What you people can best do is comment on what initiatives to inform the users are taking place and slinging it with plagiarism. Rather than you stepping forward and making your findings addressed to all, about say for example the blackberry hacking, what you can best do is come out and find something to castigate upon.