A new virus aimed at showing the holes in Microsoft Windows CE systems without causing damage was identified the weekend of July 17-18.
PC World reported July 19 that WinCE4.Duts.A, also known as Dust,only affects devices running ARM processors and infects pocket PC PE files in the root directory, based on reporting from Softwin SRL, a Hungarian security company which reported the bug July 17.
Dust reportedly raises a dialog box saying, "Dear User, am I allowed to spread?" and, if the user agrees, the virus appends to all executable (.exe) files not already infected in the current directory, said Norton AntiVirus makers Symantec, which added the bug contains no payload.
Softwin told PC World the virus's authors sent Dust to antivirus vendors and not in the wild, and didn't design Dust to propagate massively but just show devices running Windows CE could be infected by malicious code or software. Windows CE is said to be running in over 17 million pocket PCs, smart phones, and other Internet portable appliances, Softwin told the magazine.
