Re: XP automatic recognition of Nokia as NIC?

[Thomas Cannon <tcannon () noops org>]

This sounds accurate enough. I have an Ericsson cell phone with an
optional attachable cell modem that works over Ir. While I've not played
with XP, Win98 was happy enough to install the drivers and allow me to
dial out with a minimum of hassle.

I'm not sure how much of a threat this actually is, though. The Ir port
only works from at most a couple feet. To hijack someone's phone in a cafe
or something, it'd have to be one table over, facing the right direction,
have an unobstructed view, and not make any beeping noises (mine does) and
all it's scoe you is a 9600 baud link to an ISP account that you'd have to
provide.

For what it's worth, I have also used my palm pilot to dial out via that
same modem, again with no problems from the phone. SO it fyou want to
think of it as a vulnerability, it's not one of Windows, but rather one of
the cell phone.

Cheers,

Thomas

> Beware, this story was related about a friend of a friend (FOAF) and so
> should be regarded with suspicion...
>
> A FOAF had bought a new laptop PC with Windows XP installed. He also owned
> one of the latest Nokia cell phones.  One day he was using the PC when the
> Nokia was switched on and laid next to the PC.  The PC promptly put up a
> standard "New hardware Discovered" dialog box.  Curious, the FOAF worked
> through the device install dialog. XP had recognised the cell phone via the
> PC IR interface (one assumes the Nokia announces it's presence when switched
> on via it's own IR interface.) XP worked out that the Nokia could be used as
> a network interface and asked for the phone number of the FOAF's ISP, which
> was given. (It's possible that this is another function of the UPnP
> package.) The PC then connected to the ISP and a fully working network
> connection was established...
>
> The risk is obvious, XP did not establish the ownership of the cell phone
> before dialing out.
>
> As I said, I'm only relating the tale as it was told.  I do not have the
> hardware necessary to test the truth of the story, perhaps others on this
> list do.
>
> --
> Geoff Lane