A new bug in Apple’s operating systems can crash any Apple device with just one simple character

Apple is not having its best week. Following a deluge of bad reports on its new HomePod speaker – mixed reviews , reports of stained furniture , and even somewhat scarce profits – it’s now the turn of yet another software issue.

The latest bug, discovered by Italian blog Mobile World , is focused on a single character of a local Indian language (Telugu), which once typed on any iOS device can cause it to misbehave, crash, or even end stuck in a bootloop.

If a user were to open any conversation in a text-based app like WhatsApp, Twitter, or Facebook Messenger, and type the character, the app will crash, and it will keep force closing each time you try to re-open it.

(via Mobile World)The Telugu character, which we are not posting as text for obvious reasons.

As The Verge reported , the bug also afflicts other third-party applications, such as Gmail and Outlook for iOS, while others like Skype and Telegram seem to be unaffected.

If someone else were to send the character as a text, the notification snippet containing the character could also freeze or restart the entire iOS springboard by itself; Mobile World suggests that, in that case, users wait for the device to reboot itself automatically, because forcing it to do so may result in a bootloop.

Mobile World also says that the bug afflicts platforms beyond iOS: watchOS and macOS apps like Notes, Safari, and the App Store all reportedly crash as soon as the infamous character shows up.

A recent community bug report over at OpenRadar confirmed as much: “Trying to insert [the symbol] in any system text renderer like TextField, Label, TextView [makes devices] always […] crash.”

The only safe operating system seems to be iOS 11.3, which is however only publicly available in beta form. You can watch Mobile World’s full demonstrative video (in Italian) below.

source:-businessinsider