There’s an iPhone infection going around, so we thought it would be a good idea to post a quick “How-to” guide for changing your jailbroken iPhone’s SSH password. Unlike the Swine Flu, no amount of hand-washing or coughing into the bend in your arm is going to prevent your jailbroken iPhone from contracting a malicious infection. On the plus-side, changing the default password on your jailbroken iPhone should inoculate your handset from current iPhone worms.
If you’re using a jailbroken iPhone, iPhone 3G or iPhone 3GS, and you’ve messed around with SSH before, we highly recommend you change your SSH password.
Here’s how:
- Since you’re jailbroken, you have Cydia installed on your iPhone. Fire up Cydia.
- Find the “MobileTerminal” app and install it.
- Fire up the “MobileTerminal” app from your homescreen.
- Type in the command “su root” and hit enter (without quotes).
- When prompted for your password, type in “alpine” and hit enter.
- Type in the command “passwd” and hit enter.
- You’ll be prompted for a new password. Enter something you’re likely to remember. Seriously, don’t put down something obscure that you’ll forget – that might come back to bite you later on.
- Repeat your new password.
- That’s it! You are now protected from all current SSH backdoor security threats.
The entire process takes maybe a minute, depending on how long it takes for you to download/install MobileTerminal and how long it takes you to type in the above commands. There’s really no excuse for not changing your password.