The makers of the popular Blackberry line of smartphones have warned that a wireless phone application that compresses and extracts PDF files could be used to gain illicit access to corporate networks.

Research in Motion released patches along with the announcement which correct the flaws found in the PDF distiller present on most modern versions of the Blackberry smartphone. Without the patches, maliciously crafted PDF files can cause memory corruption, leading to system crashes or remote code execution.

ZDNet’s Ryan Naraine writes that several versions of Blackberry Enterprise Server can be hacked using the PDF exploit, including 5.0.0 (running on Windows 2000, 2003, or 2008), 4.1.3, 4.1.4, and 4.1.7.

Smartphone malware has been noticeably on the rise in recent months, as more enterprise customers turn to iPhones and Blackberries to do business while on the road. While some early cell phone malware has not been malicious as such – the ikee "rickrolling" worm, for instance – others have demonstrated the ability to hijack personal data and automatically propagate across entire wireless networks.

This entry was posted by Mobility Management News Desk on Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009 at 8:50 pm and is filed under Managing Mobile Devices News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.

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