Ashley Towns, a 21-year-old unemployed programmer from Wollogong, Australia had a “Rickrolling” good time as he released the initiatory iPhone worm. “It was supposed to be a small prank i definitely wasn’t expecting it to get as far as it did,” Towns said during an instant-message interview.
The worm (CODENAME: Ikee) is only a threat to users who have jaibroken their phones to let them run unauthorized software, security experts say. In fact, Ikee doesn't do anything particularly bad—it changes the victim’s wallpaper to a photograph of ’80s singer Rick Astley and then seeks out other phones to infect—but it could be modified to do something more dangerous such as stealing sensitive information from the iPhone. Towns stated he didn’t really consider the possible legal ramifications of releasing the code, something he said was “quite naive of me.”
If you are feeling naïve yourself, the following video explains it all. And, if you haven't been Rick Rolled yet, you probably will be. It's the biggest prank in the online world.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmPmIJyi0sc&NR=1
So, here’s how the Ikee worm works. You are Rick Rolled; the worm adds adds a Rick Astley wallpaper; your iPhone’s SSH daemon is disabled; Ikee looks around and then heads to the Internet for other vulnerable iPhones to infect.
News of the worm first started spreading several days ago, when users on an Australian technology discussion board complained that their iPhone wallpaper had been changed without authorization. The worm’s code was published Sunday by Joshua “JD” Davison, managing director with Australian ISP reseller JelTel, who earlier published a technical interview with Towns. There are no confirmed reports of the worm spreading outside of Australia.
Towns was reported as telling Ikee “I’m Never Gonna Give You Up”. Rumors of “Ikee 2” give those infected a more positive consequence. Sequencing, although still in the works, would go something like this: You are Rick Rolled; the worm adds adds a sexier Rick Astley wallpaper; Ray-Ban Wayfarers are automatically shipped to your physical home address; then, you are offered “The Ultimate Whiteboy Dance Moves” in DVD or Blueray formats.
A preview of “The Ultimate Whiteboy Dance Moves” can be seen here.
