Study into the Implications of Smartphone Operating System Security

Study into the implications of Smartphone operating system security
Windows Phone
Windows Phone is a relatively new Smartphone operating system but there have been
versions of Microsoft, Windows CE and Windows Mobile, running on Smartphone since
2000.
In the early days of Smartphone adoption, Windows Mobile and Symbian were two of the
most popular Smartphone operating systems. As such, these platforms were frequently
attacked and vulnerabilities were exposed. Some of these vulnerabilities led to the
development of early mobile malware that took advantage of these exploits.
Goode Intelligence discovered just seven CVE entries whilst performing a search on
‘Windows Phone’ on the CVE vulnerability database, ranging from 2007 until 2012. The
latest CVE entry (CVE-2012-2993) was added on 30 May 2012 and was related to a
Windows Phone 7 vulnerability in the way that it verifies the domain name in an X.509 digital
certificate that could lead to man-in-the-middle attacks.
As the latest version of Windows Phone, version 8, share parts of the core software
components with the desktop version there could be situations where vulnerabilities
discovered on the desktop version could be applicable to the phone version.
Windows Phone Mobile Malware
Windows Smartphones have had examples of malware written for them over the years. As
Windows Smartphones were one of the most popular device pre-iOS and Android then they
were targeted.
There is little evidence of malware being written in any great numbers for the Windows
Phone platform. There have been examples of malware proof-of-concepts 92 for Windows
Phone 8 but no real examples of malware in the wild infecting Windows Phone 8 owners.
This may be a testament to the strength of the Windows Phone security mechanisms or,
more realistically, due to the relatively small numbers of Windows Phone users.
As Windows Smartphones have lost market share then the percentage of malware that is
explicitly targeting this operating system has also fallen with only a handful of specific
Windows Phone 7 and 8 examples being detected.
This situation may change if Windows Phone market share grows.
92 16 year old builds Windows Phone 8 malware prototype. Article from www.geek.com:
http://www.geek.com/articles/mobile/16-year-old-builds-windows-phone-8-malware-prototype-
20121114/
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