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Tech

18th Jan 2018

Something called a ‘text bomb’ can cause your iPhone to crash with a single text message

Conor Heneghan

Brexit roaming

“Text bomb, text bomb, you’re my…”  We’ll stop right there.

A software developer has discovered a software bug known as a ‘text bomb’ that can reportedly cause Apple phones and computers to crash with a single message.

The developer in question, Abraham Masri (@cheesecakeufo), posted on Twitter earlier this week about finding a chaiOS bug, including a link that will, if sent to a device, “freeze the recipient’s device, and possibly restart it”.

Masri claimed that he released the bug “to get Apple’s attention” and that “Apple needs to take such bugs more seriously”.

Several Twitter users confirmed that their Messages app had crashed after testing the link and that, in some cases, it didn’t function properly afterwards.

Security expert Graham Cluley described the bug as “nasty” but said that, thankfully, it is “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”.

Cluley encouraged owners of Apple devices not to try the text bomb out on other Apple users – “you’re not being funny, you’re just being a jerk” – and added that he wouldn’t be surprised if Apple rolled out a security update to fix this particular text bomb in the near future.

Apple has yet to comment on the issue.

Topics:

Apple,Tech