How to Protect Yourself Against the Latest Apple Bug

 

Last week, a new bug wreaked havoc on iPhones across the world. Unlike most infections, which require some degree of coding ability to unleash, this one is disturbingly easy for would-be pranksters to use. All that’s required is the right string of characters to be sent in a message and the recipient’s device will instantly crash. 

As usual, Reddit users were the first to alert the world to the iOS bug, which is caused by a glitch in the way Apple’s operating system renders Arabic text. When a text message is displayed by an alert or notification on the lockscreen, the system attempts to abbreviate the text with an ellipsis. If the ellipsis is placed in the middle of a sequence of non-Latin script - including Marathi and Chinese as well as Arabic - the system crashes and the phone has to reboot. 

The text string is unlikely to be replicated by accident, which means the bug is being spread maliciously - reportedly by so-called friends of recipients, in many cases. Victims of the attack have reported they are no longer able to access messages. Others say that, bizarrely, sending a photo to the contact who texted the bug via the Photos app allows them to access the message history and delete the conversation, thus resolving the issue. Apple is still working on a permanent fix, according to the latest reports. 

There is no suggestion that the bug is being used for fraudulent purposes. There is no obvious benefit to the sender other than to cause mayhem. In that sense, falling prey to it is nothing more than an inconvenience. Users worried about the attack can simply disable notification banners on their iPhone. However, glitches like this do leave the possibility for more skilled hackers to turn the attack into something sinister.

It’s not just SMS messages. Twitter messages or other social media messages that have banner notifications and alerts enabled will also cause the phone to crash if the string of characters comes through.

Apple will surely resolve the glitch once and for all. In the meantime, disable notifications to protect your phone, and keep your eye on the latest updates online. We’ll bring you the latest news as soon as we have it...