Amidst the coronavirus pandemic, numerous Apple users have reported a mysterious bug that resulted in a system crash for iPhones, iPads, Apple watches as well as Macbooks. The bug, which is referred to as the ‘text-bomb’ is known to affect the latest version, which is the iOS 13.4.1 release. The glitch involves a string of Sindhi characters that cause the iOS to lock up and crash until it is hard rebooted.
Reported early last week, the glitch can be easily initiated in Apple products via email, and the best way to avoid this situation is to disable notifications for email as well as messaging apps. Users can also forcibly reboot the device to get it functional again or can wait for a while until the iOS springboard recovers by itself.
Taking the issue into consideration, Apple rolled out a statement acknowledging the glitch and is working on solving the same. In the official announcement, Apple responded to ZecOps’ findings, saying, “Apple takes all reports of security threats seriously. We have thoroughly investigated the researcher’s report and, based on the information provided, have concluded these issues do not pose an immediate risk to our users. The researcher identified three issues in Mail, but alone they are insufficient to bypass iPhone and iPad security protections, and we have found no evidence they were used against customers. These potential issues will be addressed in a software update soon. We value our collaboration with security researchers to help keep our users safe and will be crediting the researcher for their assistance.”
In a blog post published by ZecOps on April 20, the research team mentions that the earliest findings of this bug were in January 2018. The findings also state that the vulnerability can be triggered before the entire email is downloaded, hence the email content won’t necessarily remain on the device.
Apple has tackled several iOS bugs over the years, the earliest being in 2018. However, there are several such instances reported over the years where a string of messages and a short video clip has crashed the system beyond repair.
