Summary: The iOS bug that attacks via Messages app in iOS devices and effectively crashes them has now broken Twitter, Snapchat and other popular apps too — The matter is getting serious as even Mac OS X is not spared by this bug.
Apple‘s iOS is considered one of the most secure mobile operating system. However, its reputation has been damaged by the newly discovered bug that effectively crashes iOS devices when they receive certain SMS or iMessage. Now it has been identified that this bug has penetrated into messages and notifications from popular apps like Snapchat and Twitter, which means its getting bigger.
Mac OS X:
The most alarming aspect is that it can attack Mac OS X as well and as directed by Forbes:
“The issue lies in how Apple devices render characters in unicode, a widely-deployed standard that uses binary code to represent text or script characters, known as glyphs.”
As far as bugs and slight hiccups are concerned iOS is not a stranger but it has stayed invulnerable to bugs in which a string of messages or SMS can force the iPhone to crash and restart. Though, now this bug has emerged as a great threat for Apple Co.
The problem is that the scope of attacks is widening. This bug poses a threat to all other iOS apps and Apple’s desktop OS and therefore, has become a bigger headache than it initially was deemed by the iPhone maker.
Apple released a temporary fix to resolve the text/iMessage crashing bug but this hasn’t proven to be very effective in restricting the bug infection parameter.
Twitter:
It seems that if you have enabled Twitter notification feature then any incoming public mention or a direct message will force your iPhone into retreat and the phone will crash and restart.
Snapchat:
As far as Snapchat is concerned, the issue gets even more dramatic as when the infamous message is received, it will immediately crash the iPhone if you try to open the chat. You may try again and again but every time the phone will restart, according to The Guardian.
Solution for now:
Perhaps, the only conceivable solution for this problem is to simply turn off notifications and wait for iOS 8.4 releases as it will come with fix for this bug.
