Typing A Specific Combination Of Ordinary Characters Can Crash Your iPhone
Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:
Apple device users recently discovered a minor bug that causes the Settings screen and home screen to crash. While no serious issues have been reported so far, a fix in a future firmware update would not be surprising.
Swiping right on the iOS home screen until the app library appears, and then typing the characters "::" into the search bar, causes Springboard - the software that handles the main menu - to crash. A black screen with a loading icon briefly appears before the device returns to the lock screen.
Additionally, entering the same characters into the search bar at the top of the Settings menu crashes the app, immediately sending users back to the home screen. However, the bug can be triggered by variations of this character combination as well.
Security researchers have found that nearly any combination involving two quotation marks, one colon, and any other character can trigger the same effect. For example, typing "X":X also causes the issue. TechSpot confirmed that the bug occurs on iPhones and iPads running firmware version 17.6.1, but Macs remain unaffected.
Researchers told TechCrunch that the issue doesn't pose a security threat. However, the bug may raise some concerns because it resembles more serious incidents from the past.
[...] Fortunately, the recent iOS bug can only be triggered by someone physically using the device, so the potential risk remains limited.
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