Antivirus specialist F-Secure has discovered a third variation of the previously discovered Commwarrior virus targeting Series 60 based smartphones, dubbed Commwarrior.C. As with the previously discovered Commwarrior.A and Commwarrior.B, this newfound subspecies relies both on Bluetooth and MMS to spread to the users of other Symbian OS smartphones, but adds social engineering twists which should raise the risk of infection considerably.

When a device is initially infected with Commwarrior.C, the virus accesses the address book and proceeds to send infected MMS messages to all persons listed, similar to the A and B variations. In addition, however, Commwarrior.C listens for incoming SMS messages to which it immediately replies with an MMS message with itself attached and text drawn from previous SMS messages stored on the smartphone to increase the perceived legitimacy of the message.

Additionally, the virus also copies itself onto any memory card inserted into an infected device, creating yet another potential risk of spreading through the sharing of memory cards.

Regardless of the method of infection, however, recipients must still go through a confirmation dialog which asks whether the user indeed wants this application - in this case, the virus - to be installed. Should users accept the installation as a result of the improved social engineering abilities of Commwarrior.C, the virus, which originates from Russia, will attempt to change the operator logo of the handset in addition to opening a web page hosted on a Russian server which lists the virus as providing protection against Anti-Virus products.

At least it\'s not a Treo virus, or my dad would be affected.

Last sentence: Russians want protection against ANTI-VIRUS PROGRMAS??! 0_o