iOS Bug Can Cause a Device to Crash by Receiving Text

Apple’s mobile software has been stung by a particularly vicious bug that prompts iOS devices to crash when a particular sequence of unicode is sent via Messages. The combination of English and Arabic text, when received, has can cause springboard crashes and full-on reboots, and while we’d expect Apple to come through with a fix, it’s quite a nasty issue to have floating around.

The bug performs a denial-of-service (DOS) attack when said font combination is shared word-for-word, and for those interested, this is the text in question:

effective.
Power
لُلُصّبُلُلصّبُررً ॣ ॣh ॣ ॣ
冗

Many disgruntled iPhone users have taken to Twitter to voice their displeasure, as can be seen below:

If someone turn my iPhone off one more time 😡

— Female Hustler❤️ (@trvpqveen___) May 27, 2015

Screw you all who sent that turn iPhone off message to me.. ✌🏽️

— Julz ✨ (@littler01) May 27, 2015

Others, however, have seized the opportunity to have a little fun:

everytime someone with an iPhone doesn’t respond, or annoys someone to the max, you can easily turn off their phone !!

— Priya Chary (@pc_dec24) May 27, 2015

And, our personal favorite:

When your ex has an iPhone and u send him the thing to turn off his phone so he can’t text his hoes 😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊

— WánderŁûśt (@Nicolee_318) May 27, 2015

Jokes aside, though, let’s hope Apple fixes this issue before things get a little out of hand. The ability to DOS somebody’s iPhone or iPad may seem funny the first time, but as can be seen from a quick Twitter search of “turn off iPhone” or something to that effect, it’s not so hilarious when you’re on the receiving end.

Have you had your iPhone or iPad crash due to this bug? Please share your experiences in the comments, and we will keep you updated on a potential fix from Apple.

(Source: 9to5Mac)