29 January 2009

Nokia Strikes Back
Freeware 'Curse of Silence' Removal Tool!

Nokia has released the SMS cleaner, a software removal tool to help remove specific SMS exploit from Symbian devices that are running 3rd Edition of Nokia S60 platform.

Nokia SMS cleaner is a small application capable to easily clean any infected Nokia S60 3rd Edition (initial or the Feature Pack 1) based device, which may have received a so called “Curse of Silence” SMS message, and thereby restricted from receiving any new SMS messages.

After you have installed the application, it will ask for execution permission.

During execution, application attempts to clean received Curse of Silence-messages from your phone. After execution the application will be deinstalled and phone will be restarted.

The "Curse of Silence/CurseSMS" attack is a remote SMS/MMS denial of service that was recently discovered by Tobias Engel and revealed at the 25th Chaos Communication Congress. The attack involves sending a maliciously crafted SMS to potential targets.

Upon receipt of that SMS, the targeted device may no longer be able to receive SMS or MMS messages. Depending on the operating system version of the targeted mobile phone, the device may require a factory reset to properly function again.

Potentially vulnerable devices include Nokia phones running SymbianOS S60 2nd Edition Feature Pack 2, 2nd Edition Feature Pack 3, 3rd Edition, and 3rd Edition Feature Pack 1. This includes several phones of the "N" series up to the N95 and of the "E" series up to the E90, as well as older models such as the 6680.

You can download and install this application in several ways:

• Input www.europe.nokia.com/smscleaner into your phone's browser (where available) to access this page and download SMS Cleaner file directly to your phone and install
• Download SMS Cleaner to your PC, transfer it to your memory card or phone memory and install the application
• Download SMS Cleaner to your PC and use Nokia PC Suite to install the application into your phone

Please note that there may be “Curse of Silence” messages queued up in the SMS Center of your Operator Network. In this case you might need to install and run the application again.