Want to protect yourself from the iPhone SMS virus? Apple has not released an iPhone 3.1 update yet, and I have no idea when they will be doing so. I 
could turn off my iPhone and keep it safe, but I’d rather keep it on! I’ve figured out a way to disable the SMS App, but I’m not sure whether or not this will still prevent the virus. Read on below to find out how you can do the same.
How to disable the SMS App
- Jailbreak your iPhone using either redsn0w or purplera1n
- Go to Cydia, search for OpenSSH and install it
- Download an SSH client (WinSCP for Windows users and Cyberduck for Mac)
- Make sure WiFi is turned on, go to Settings -> WiFi. Select your network and check your iPhone’s IP. SSH in to your iPhone using the iPhone’s IP. Login with the Username: root and Password: alpine.
- Navigate to the Applications directory
- Locate the directory named MobileSMS.app. Right-click and click on properties. Where it says Permissions uncheck all the options.
- Click OK.
- To test if you did this right, tap the SMS app on your iPhone and it should crash when you launch it!
Once you’ve followed the steps above, the SMS app stops working. I’m keeping my iPhone like this until Apple releases a firmware update, or until Chronic Dev Team is able to release a patch before Apple does. If you want your SMS app back at any time you can fix it by following Step 6 and setting the permissions back to 0755.
Warning: Do not attempt to do this tutorial if you’re not sure how to SSH or change file permissions! Wait for Apple’s firmware update.
I’ll update the site once a firmware update or a real patch is released.
iPhone Virus
iPhone SMS Virus
More iPhone virus details
iPhone 3.0.1 iTunes update
Any other methods to set permissions? For some reason SSH doesn’t work here.
had to look around, apparently use Mobile Finder from Cydia then go MobileSMS.app and click on it, click Modify then under Owner, Group and Everyone turn Read, Write Exec OFF for each ( 9 total) . I hope this is right, someone please confirm. After doing this, while clicking on the SMS App, it goes back to front screen. Anyone?
Fredz it doesnt to work coz even closing sms app i m recieving sms my notification saw d messages are still coming n after changing permission to 755 i saw messages r in d inbox so it will not work in my views
Attention iPhone users: This will NOT fix the problem. All this does is inconvenience you while providing no protection at all.
Sraj and Paul seem to be right: All this does is to prevent the opening or displaying the SMS message after you ’slide to unlock’ for example or when you’re notified of a new SMS.
When the MobileSMS.app is “modified” and message is not displayed, it’s still going to the inbox. After un-”modifying” it and enabling Airplane Mode ON, restarting the iPhone and going to SMS there’s a new message notification and inside the Inbox there’s the message already downloaded.
I guess this is useless since the “virus” is not activated when you open the SMS message but once it gets inside the Inbox, right?