A NEW 'text bomb' is causing iPhones and Mac computers to crash – with devastating results.
Anyone can send an iPhone owner a dangerous link that one security expert describes as causing a 'brainstorm' on your Apple device.
A new type of malicious link that exploits an annoying bug in iOS and macOS can cause an unsuspecting user’s iPhone, iPad, iPod touch or Mac to restart or freeze when received through the Messages app or opened in Safari. A new 'text bomb' affecting Apple's iPhone and Mac computers has been discovered. Abraham Masri, a software developer, tweeted about the flaw which typically causes an iPhone to crash and in some. According to at least one user, Safari on Mac may also attempt to automatically bring up the text bomb webpage again once the computer restarts. That could, in theory, cause perpetual crashing for.
The bug, known as 'ChaiOS', was first exploited by software developer Abraham Masri, who posted it on code-sharing site GitHub earlier this week.
Masri tweeted the bug code, saying: 'Text the link below, it will freeze the recipient's device, and possibly restart it.' How to search for a document by date.
He adds: 'Do not use it for bad stuff'
How does ChaiOS 'text bomb' bug work?
When you receive a link to a website through Apple's Messages app, a preview of the link is generated.
Apple lets developers insert characters into their website's design code, which customises how the image and title of the preview appears in the app.
Masri abused this system by loading his website's code with hundreds of thousands of characters – far more than Apple's iOS software for the iPhone is designed to handle.
So when you open your Messages app and the link preview loads, your app will probably crash – and your iPhone might completely freeze too.
It also means that you'll potentially be unable to re-open the Messages app without causing another freeze, because the dodgy preview is still there.
Security expert Graham Cluley says: 'Something about the so-called ChaiOS bug's code gives your Apple device a brainstorm.'
'Ashamed about the mess it gets itself in, Messages decides the least embarrassing thing to do is to crash.'
'Nasty. But, thankfully, more of a nuisance than something that will lead to data being stolen from your computer or a malicious hacker being able to access your files.'
To make matters worse, Masri listed the bug's code on GitHub, which meant anyone can replicate it.
Masri has since removed the code and promised that he is 'not going to re-upload it' – but copycats could still exploit the flaw.
He added: 'I made my point. Apple needs to take such bugs more seriously.'
How to fix ChaiOS iPhone text bomb crash and freeze
Our first advice is to try to avoid clicking the link. In some cases, you'll be fine as long as you don't actually click the preview.
If you can, try to delete the offending message – this should fix the issue entirely.
Sadly, it's impossible to delete Apple's actual Messages app, so if your phone is crashing every time you open Messages, it's a little trickier to resolve.
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One extreme solution is to factory reset your phone, which you can do from the Settings app. However, this will delete all of your photos, data, and settings – so this should be a last-resort method.
Sms Bomber For Mac
If you use this technique, make sure to back up your files using iTunes first, too.
A more technical method of preventing the ChaiOS 'text bomb' is available, but it won't work in all cases.
You'll need to get into your phone settings and block the GitHub domain, which will prevent the bad code from being executed.
Go to Settings > General > Restrictions > Enable Restrictions > Websites > Limit Adult Content > Never Allow > GitHub.io.
This will block the GitHub code, but it won't work if someone is hosting the bad code on a different website.
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Woman claims she has PROOF Facebook is spying on conversationsMasri claims to have warned Apple about the bug, so it's likely that the company is aware – and may be working on a fix.
The Sun has asked Apple whether it has any advice for distressed customers, but the company declined to comment.
In the meantime, avoid clicking any unexpected links or attachments, and make sure your friends and family are aware of the bug too.
Text Bomber For Computer
TechCrunch has learned of a potentially serious new bug affecting a wide range of Apple devices.
During their development work on an international news feed, software engineers at Aloha Browser discovered two Unicode symbols in a non-English language that can crash any Apple device that uses Apple’s default San Francisco font. The bug instigates crashes on iPhones, iPads, Macs and even Watch OS devices that display text containing the symbol on their screens.
https://celestialdisc.weebly.com/text-twist-game-for-mac.html. Word for mac center text vertically. When one of the two symbols is displayed in an app, the software crashes immediately. In many cases, the app cannot be reopened and must be reinstalled. TechCrunch was able to recreate this behavior on two iPhones running an older version of iOS, one iPhone running iOS 11.2.5 and a MacBook Pro running High Sierra.
The bug crashes apps including Mail, Twitter, Messages, Slack, Instagram and Facebook. From our testing, it also crashed Jumpcut, a copy and paste plugin for Mac. While it initially appeared that the Chrome browser for Mac was unaffected and could safely display the symbol, it later crashed Chrome and the software would not reopen without crashing until uninstalled and reinstalled.
TechCrunch has been in touch with Apple about the potential timeline for a software fix and will update this story accordingly. According to the team at Aloha Browser, Apple is aware of the bug and it may have been reported by another development team, as well. [Update: Apple has confirmed that there’s a fix coming soon. Apparently this only affects current versions of the software, and this is already fixed in the betas of iOS, tvOS, macOS and watchOS.]
This is Apple’s second text bomb headache of the year. In January, software researcher Abraham Masri discovered an iOS glitch that allowed a specific URL to crash any iPhone it was texted to, sometimes resulting in a kernel panic. In 2016, another bug could crash any iPhone or the Safari browser if a user clicked the URL for CrashSafari.com. In 2015, a so-called “Unicode of Death” could overload an iPhone’s memory using some Arabic characters. Now we’re looking at Unicode of Death 2.0.
Because so many apps are affected, the new text bomb could be used to create mass chaos if spammed across an open social platform or used to target individuals via email or messaging. The new bug affects a broad swath of Apple devices and crashes nearly any major app they run, making it particularly destructive if not resolved quickly.