Kaspersky Lab Discovers First iPod-Specific Virus

April 6, 2007

Russian computer security company Kaspersky Lab announced on Thursday that it had discovered the first virus designed specifically to infect iPods.

Russian computer security company Kaspersky Lab announced on Thursdaythat it had discovered the first virus designed specifically to infectiPods. The catch? You actually have to put it on your iPod-and your iPod needs to have Linux installed on it.

The virus, dubbed Podloso, is what's known as a "proof of concept" virus-or one that is created in order to demonstrate that it is possible to infect a specific platform. As such, the company said that it does not pose any real threat.

If installed on an iPod, Podloso proceeds to further replicate itself to the folder that contains program demo versions, according to Kaspersky Lab.

"Once launched, the virus scans the device's hard disk and infects allexecutable .elf format files," the company said in a statement. "Anyattempt 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.'"

Kaspersky Lab stressed that Podloso does not carry a malicious payloadand is unable to spread.

Despite Kaspersky's claim that Podloso is the first iPod virus discovered, a small number of iPods were actually shipped with a Windows virus installed on them last October .

Less than 1 percent of the video iPods sold after Sept. 12 were infected with the Windows RavMon.exe virus, Apple said. Furthermore, it only affected Windows computers and was easily detected and removed with up-to-date anti-virus software.

Copyright 2007 by Ziff Davis Media, Distributed by United Press International