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Apparently, there has been a compromise at HTC or Vodaphone. There are rumors on the web that a Vodaphone “HTC Magic” came pre-installed with multiple malware programs. How would someone slip a file onto a phone before it enters an end user’s hands? Any way you look at it, this seems like a hack.

A quick analysis of the malware reveals that it is in fact a Mariposa bot client.

Every android phone *can* be plugged into any PC or Mac via USB. Under windows it works just like any other insert digital medium (CD, DVD, Flash Drive). Upon being plugged in, it opens the folder and executes the file specified in autorun.ini. This would be the vector a bot herder/malware researcher would use to launch it’s “spread” and stay infected. As long as nobody notices the files on the phones, users would just keep getting re-infected every time they plug in their phone to download their photos. One speculation that may be responsible is: “the SD card” since all that someone would need to do is put “files” in the root of the SD card for them to execute. So the question might be instead be: “How would someone slip a file onto a flash card before it’s inserted into a phone?”.

Interestingly enough, the Mariposa bot is not the only malware I found on the Vodafone HTC Magic phone. There’s also a Confiker and a Lineage password stealing malware.

Why did it take so long for a person to notice malware on the phone? The HTC Magic is one of the most popular smart-phones in the UK. In the US, T-mobile branded this product as the “myTouch 3G“, and that phone has a massive pop. Where is the supporting evidence on the phone? The only “proof” we have so far is a few windows screen shots. I’m intrigued by this and it will be interesting to see what comes to light. I’ll keep you updated when I hear more.

A launch promotion for ‘Assasin’s creed 2: multiplayer’ is going on now at the iTunes store. You can grab this game free for 48 hours here on iTunes.

Assassin’s Creed 2: Multiplayer, an exclusive game for iPhone & iPod touch and the first game in the series that allows you to compete against your friends.

Features:

LIVE MULTIPLAYER ACTION
Assassin’s Creed 2: Multiplayer is a REAL-TIME ONLINE multiplayer game using a WI-FI connection letting you compete against up to 3 other player- controlled assassins.

KILL OR GET KILLED
The ultimate goal of the game is to hunt down other players and assassinate them before they kill you.

BLEND IN THE CROWD
Escape other players taking advantage of your environments & blending into the crowd of citizens.

MULTIPLE ENVIRONMENTS
Play in 3 different environments from Assassin’s Creed 2 inspired by Italian cities from the Renaissance.

LETHAL POWER-UPS
Use up to 6 different power-ups to get an edge over your opponents.

BECOME THE MASTER ASSASSIN
Increase your notoriety by defeating other players, and fight your way up to the top to become the Master Assassin. The notoriety system uses a dynamic ranking system to position you on the leaderboards.

ACHIEVEMENTS
Collect up to 24 achievements and post your records on Facebook.

CHALLENGE YOUR FRIENDS
Manage your list of friends and send them live invitations to join your game sessions and find out who amongst you is THE best assassin.

This looks kind of fun. Get it, load it up, and hit me up for some game.

I beat this game about a month ago, and finally decided to toss something up on the site about it. It’s a fairly short review, and since I can’t just hit my print screen button when I’m playing, there’s no screen shots, sorry. Agree or disagree (probably more of the later), give it a read. Hope you enjoy.

Click here to read the review.

Wow Sony post day. Here’s a cute and fun video that disassembles and reassembles a PSP Go in stop motion. This video is all over the blog-o-spheres so I wouldn’t doubt if you have seen it.

Smack! Looks like the PS3 has finally been hacked. The ‘researcher’ supposedly bypassed the hypervisor and gained full read/write access to all the inner workings of the long un-touched gaming console beast machine known as the Playstation 3. Sony, what’s up?

The researcher named George Hotz goes by geohot. We won’t find out soon how he did it because he’s not releasing his information yet, but you can follow the updates on the researcher’s blog or his twitter.

Shouldn’t be long now, ps3. I May have to get one!

[found at hack a day]