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Malicious Unicode message string responsible for iPhone crashing
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NewsPoster
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May 27, 2015, 08:14 AM
 
A new iOS bug has manifested itself, allowing for malicious senders to remotely crash an iPhone. A very specific string of Arabic text can be used, which triggers a flaw in unicode handling, which will lock up Messages, induce phone restarts if locked, and can cause Springboard to crash.

The crashing is caused by runaway resource demands on the phone attempting to fully render the message. Should the line of text be received while the user is inside the Messages app itself, the crashing does not manifest itself. The lack of a direct crash in Messages points to notifications as being the problem, and not specifically Messages itself.

The cycle can be stopped by the afflicted user sending a picture from Share Sheets or Photos. A follow-up message from the sending user can also stop this process, but the string is already being used maliciously, so a second non-attack message is unlikely. MacNN will not publish the Unicode string in its entirety, but a small portion is being used for the preview image.
( Last edited by NewsPoster; Jun 1, 2015 at 02:46 AM. )
     
aj1245
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May 27, 2015, 11:57 AM
 
Nope. Not allowing links either.
( Last edited by Mike Wuerthele; May 27, 2015 at 12:52 PM. Reason: Link to copyable text for flaw.)
     
aj1245
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May 27, 2015, 02:09 PM
 
The article proposed another solution: to turn off Notifications for Messages. Sounds like a good idea to me since the phrase is going around in the press and it's easy for people to copy/paste it and start sending it everywhere.
     
Mike Wuerthele
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May 27, 2015, 02:26 PM
 
It would be, but it doesn't always work.

This isn't really a public threat, but is something your "friends" will do to screw with you.
     
climacs
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May 27, 2015, 05:31 PM
 
and the fAndroids are quite gleeful about this, never mind that 1 in 5 Android apps are malware.
     
   
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