“A strange but simple bug in an essential part of Apple’s desktop and mobile operating systems is crashing computers, phones, and tablets across the internet, as Windows and Firefox users, both immune, repost it for kicks,” John Herrman reports for BuzzFeed. “It’s shown up on Reddit, 4Chan, YouTube, and Twitter, where it caused temporary chaos, and has already been banned from Facebook. More damaging, and mostly invisible, is its potential spread via text, sending this string in iMessage in iOS 6 causes a crash that can leave phones severely disabled, and, for most users, prompt a trip to the genius bar.”
A “string of Arabic characters, which has no meaning, exploits a problem with Apple’s Core Text rendering engine, which is the part of its operating system software that draws, smooths, and lays out text.” Herrman reports. “To fix the bug users will have to update their operating systems, either in a small increment or to iOS 7 or the next version of OS X, Mavericks, neither of which have been released to the public but both of which are protected from the problem… For now, the best recourse for Mac users is to install Firefox and keep an eye out for incoming system updates.”
MacDailyNews Note: In fact, an even shorter string of just the first few of the Arabic characters shown above can crash Safari 6.1 (as tested in OS X 10.8.4).
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Unicode of Death.
Anybody know what those letters spell? The crash could be Apple’s secretive anti-evil-dooer software installed preventing ‘code’ words from starting a WMD of DOOOOOMMMMM!
It’s the first part of the Reality Distortion Field secret formula. That’s why OS X and iOS crash, to protect the secret of RDF!
Yahweh
God told us not to speak his name in vain. Uh oh. 😉
Actually, the post says the characters are meaningless and ‘random’.
I personally want to see an real demonstration of this bug. Stuff like this frequently turns out to be some troll’s invented BS used for FUD purposes. Therefore, I am in-search-of and will report back below if I find anything useful.
An insidious Arab attack on the western world no doubt.
I see nobody saw the funny side of your comment! I’m guessing you meant it with a pinch of salt?
What’s a crash? Haven’t seen one in years.
Me either!
I saw one in a classroom — a kid had a Dell…
Correction: A random string of Arabic characters can crash just about anything.
Zing!!
Okay… Is this problem crashing the victim’s Mac, or just Safari? Because those are two very different things. I’d be stunned if this problem brought down the entire computer.
——RM
I tried:
• It brought down Safari 6.0.5 immediately.
• It did *not* take down the system 10.8.4.
In other words, كل ما تبذلونه من قاعدة هل تنتمي إلينا
Tada! No harm done here? Did I just blow out anyone’s browser?
What is the point of rubbish like this? It’s to FUD Apple users who are not 1337 enough to try the test out as real or bogus. My testing says: BOGUS.
Derek, you are downright fearless. Has anyone ever told you that?
I think, in this case, ‘stupid’ fits very well. I knew better than to post the naughty characters, but was so convinced that my little world was the big wide world and it was not. I am soooo human at times. 😉
Have you tried asking a friend to send you a text message with the text in? I am now unable to open my message app because of this.
iPhone 5 iOS 6.1.4
keenly awaiting a solution to undo this.
D
I know what u mean, but its possible to delete it if the guy who sent the message to u can send another normal message, then leave that message(Dont open it). And then ask another friend if he can send a message to u, then click on the message when its incoming so u are in the converstaion between u and him, then press back button so u can delete all messages from the guy who sent you the arabic text.
I hope u understand my bad english 😛
Bullet to my head for posting the naughty characters here:
q= – – – (0_o)
I’ve been researching this. There are two strategies, depending upon whether the messed up messages app is Apple’s or not. I’m going to suggest trying solutions in this order:
A) Totally shut down your iPhone (hold down the lock button until the shutdown starts), then boot it again (click the lock button).
A) Reboot your iPhone:
Totally shut down your iPhone (hold down the lock button until the shutdown starts), then boot it again (click the lock button to start the boot). The consensus I’m reading is that this will clear any app’s residual cache.
Try your message app again. If it is still locking up, and it is NOT Apple’s ‘Messages’ app (which cannot be deleted) then try this:
B) Use iTunes (or the iPhone) to ‘Remove’ the locked up app. Then inside of iTunes under your iPhones ‘Apps’, ‘Install’ the app again.
Removal of any app clears out all the files associated with the app, including its cache. The app works again. I’ve done this many times with apps that have installed oddly and consistently crash. Remove then install typically makes them entirely happy.
Post in this thread if neither of these methods works and I’ll dig around for more solutions.
:-Derek
Osama revenge?
Crashes Mail too. Does not crash mobile Safari on iOS 7 though.
Actually, scratch that. Mail locked up for several seconds and then just refused to download that message. Still working though.
Terrorist code.
Troll FUD rubbish IYAM.
The funny part of all this?
We have Mac users running these Arabic characters to see what a crash looks like.
It’s ironic some of the commentators bashing Arabic as a terrorist language and such but Steve Jobs was half Arab
You mean he was of Arabic descent. That is different than being an Arab.
Syrian, not Arabic.
Syria is one of several Arabic countries. They speak Arabic in Syria. Therefore…
My late father was born in Syria and spoke Arabic. And my Mom’s family too came from Syria. But they were Jews and did not consider themselves Arabs.
As to Job’s heritage, according to the “Steve Jobs” biography, he considered his biological heritage immaterial, and it played no role in his life.
My father’s native tongue is Wadiyan.
SHENANIGANS
I have the text. I have the web page URL with the text. I’ve tested it in Terminal. I’ve tested it in Safari. I’ve tested it in Chromium (not Chrome). NOTHING HAPPENED.
My system = OS X 10.7.5, Safari 6.0.5, Chromium 27.0.1453.116 (just about to update it now). No crash. Not error. No nothing. Therefore, so far: SHENANIGANS.
I have NOT tested the text in iOS. Any other testers, please report.
I tested it on Opera 16.0. NOTHING.
I’ve read reports about testing it on 10.6.8 with Safari 6.0.5. NOTHING.
I’d be interested in verified reports of problems on iOS. Otherwise, I’m calling this a RUMOR VIRUS.
My Mac security interest group has been bashing away at this on various platforms and browsers. We have focused in on this being ONLY a problem on:
OS X 10.8.x
iOS 6.x
I have been entirely unable to recreate the problem on 10.7.5. I have reports that 10.6.8 are not affected as well. I have a lot of reports that 10.8.4 is affected. 10.8.5 and 10.9 have no reports of being affected.
Meanwhile, I have reports that iOS 5 is not affected. I personally blew up every web browser I have for 6.1.3, without exception. There are no reports of iOS 7 being affected.
IOW: There is indeed a lot of bogus information out there about this problem. But it is for reelz on OS X 10.8 and iOS 6, only.
And my profound apologies for posting the offending characters here yesterday. 😥
Ok that was strange…
Have fun with friends sending a SMS to their iPhone and see iOS to crash using latest know iOS bug!
Using this Android App, when you send the SMS attack to any iPhone, in addition to crash for 15 seconds (black or apple screen), the messages app hangs and can no longer be opened until, using this app, you decide for send the rescue SMS and follow any simple instructions.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=br.com.arlsoft.iphonecrash