Apple had a shockingly bad week of software problems just before the end of 2017, and it looks like 2018 isn't starting so well either. A new bug has been discovered in iOS 11 that lets people send a specific character that will crash an iPhone and block access to the Messages app in iOS and popular apps like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Outlook for iOS, and Gmail. Italian Blog Mobile World spotted the bug, and we've tested it successfully on multiple iPhones running iOS 11.2.5, and found it also works on the macOS versions of Safari and Messages. Apple plans to fix the problem in an iOS update before the release of iOS 11.3 this spring.
The bug itself involves sending an Indian language (Telugu) character to devices, and Apple's iOS Springboard will crash once the message has been received. Messages will no longer open as the app is trying and failing to load the character, and it appears that the only way to regain access to your iMessages is to have another friend send you a message and try to delete the thread that contained the bad character.
We've also tested the bug on third-party apps like Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Gmail, and Outlook for iOS and found that these apps can become disabled once a message is received.
[...] Update, 3:30PM ET: Apple plans to fix the issue in an update before the iOS 11.3 release this spring.
Source: The Verge
(Score: 4, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 17 2018, @03:17AM (5 children)
According to an analysis here [github.io], it is more than just a single character of a single language that can crash it. Instead, this seems to affect many characters in an entire class of languages. But, there probably aren't any developers from Apple that use them, so no wonder it was hidden. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised, given some of the analysis, if it turns out this was introduced in the last bug fix for errors on certain character combinations.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 17 2018, @06:25AM
Ah - thank you for that link, the meat that the english articles lacked!
(Score: 2) by inertnet on Saturday February 17 2018, @11:04AM (1 child)
Reminds me of Dune, where they used certain amplified words as weapons.
Imagine that, we can use weird words now to take down systems.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Provocateur on Saturday February 17 2018, @02:02PM
It reminds me of Tonto that lone Indian character.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by FatPhil on Saturday February 17 2018, @11:57AM (1 child)
Why do people persist with proprietory software?
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Nerdfest on Saturday February 17 2018, @04:07PM
Because they're lazy, stupid, and don't understand the damage being done.