Cabir cell phone threat worsens | CNET News.com

By Paul Festa
Staff Writer, CNET News.com

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Reporting a new crop of variants, a security firm warned that the Cabir cell phone virus is becoming more of a threat.

Earlier versions of Cabir, which spreads through phones running the Symbian operating system and Bluetooth wireless technology, won attention this summer for being the first worms to spread via smart phones. But they were quickly determined to be relatively harmless, proof-of-concept programs.

As it issued alerts for Cabir.H, Cabir.I, and Cabir.J, security firm F-Secure warned that the latest versions of Cabir are evolving beyond its comparatively benign predecessors.

"These new Cabir variants fix a flaw that was slowing down original Cabir's spreading speed," F-Secure warned in a release Tuesday. "Cabir originally would only spread to one new phone per reboot (while) Cabir.H and Cabir.I can spread to an unlimited number of phones per reboot."

The sheer quantity of variants being detected now and their closeness to the original indicate that Cabir's secret sauce is no longer much of a secret, F-Secure warned.

"These new variants seem to...