How to Protect yourself from the iPhone Virus

Hans — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 19:30:09 +0000

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.

QuickPWN » SMS

How to Protect yourself from the iPhone Virus

How to disable the SMS App