iPhone owners plagued by yet another iOS bug
Video: Change these iOS 11 privacy and security settings now
iPhone owners, brace yourself for yet another bug that pranksters and other ne’er-do-wells can use to crash your iPhone and block access to messaging apps like iMessage and even third-party apps like Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and Gmail.
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The bug, spotted by the Italian blog Mobile World, involves sending an Indian language character (Telugu) to the victim. Once it is received, the iOS SpringBoard application immediately crashes, and then the system prevents the application from loading.
This bug can cause iPhones to crash to the point where they require a DFU reset to recover.
The workaround for iMessage is to get someone else to send you a message, which allows you to open the application and delete the offending message, but for other third-party apps, the fix is dependent on the application, and it can range from simple to impossible if you don’t have web access enabled for apps such as WhatsApp.
ZDNet has confirmed this bug on devices running the latest iOS 11.2.5 build. However, the iOS 11.3 public beta seems unaffected.
The bug also appears to affect Safari and Messages on macOS.
If you’re a prankster at heart, don’t send this to people. Not only is it annoying, it can cause no end of grief for the recipient.