Comments on: Do We Need Anti Virus for Symbian OS 9 Devices?

By: Cont from previous mail

Cont from previous mail — Sat, 19 May 2007 12:32:23 +0000

Here is the URL:

http://www.imserba.com/forum/showthread.php?t=80947

By: van

van — Thu, 17 May 2007 16:25:02 +0000

Tks bro,
I posted a similar msg in Nokia forum and receive the same answer:
http://discussion.forum.nokia.com/forum/showthread.php?t=108093

But sbd manage to play some sort of trick:
\

By: Antony Pranata

Antony Pranata — Tue, 15 May 2007 17:08:43 +0000

@van: Private here is similar to sandbox. Applications with AllFiles capability have full access to it. Fortunately, only very few applications can have AllFiles capability. Symbian and phone manufacturers control this capability very carefully.

About backup activity, by default, any files on the \private folder will not be backed up. Only when developers instruct Symbian Installer explicitly in their backup_registration.xml file then it is going to be backed up.

By: van

van — Tue, 15 May 2007 16:16:21 +0000

Hello,
Can we store some sort of persistent data into the private folder? I mean can the application reuses some data it stored in the \private folder in previous session.
And more important, does *private* really mean *private to the application* or is it just a kind of sandbox? For example, the owner of device can siphon off the data from \private folder by the backup activity.
Also, a malicious application with AllFiles capability can access the \private folder of any application too.

By: Artem Marchenko

Artem Marchenko — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 07:55:19 +0000

Modern viruses/trojans are all about social engineering – if user wants to install “that perfect game”, he can do it whoever the signee is. And then even if minimal capabilities are allowed, there always can be some platform bug that can be used for raising the capabilities.

Though I’ve never heard about such a virus for Symbian 9. Maybe Symbian 9 is too small market and still brings little profit for viruses

By: Antony Pranata

Antony Pranata — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 15:34:42 +0000

@Tote: I fully agree with you. That’s why I said in my posting that somone who doesn’t know how to differentiate between trusted and unknown sources may want to install anti-virus.

By: Tote

Tote — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 09:44:46 +0000

Antony,

Malicious code can still do damage even on v9 phones. It\’s not just a question of what they can do, but also what the user allows them to do. The unexperienced user, I mean. The one who thinks the PlatSec solves her security problems and she doesn\’t need to bother with viruses. The one who keeps Bluetooth on while in (public) traffic and presses Yes-Yes-Yes to every question just to have the process finished asap. The one who doesn\’t care of exclamation marks, who grants UserRead/WriteData capabilities to any apps. The average user, I mean.