Text Messages are Crashing iOS Messages App on iPhones due to Bug

[Maura]

According to a report on MacRumors today, a new bug has appeared on iOS on iPhone that is causing the Messages app, and in turn the phone, to crash. It seems that all it takes to crash the app and the iPhone is a specific string of characters sent via iMessage or SMS.

The bug first came to the attention of a Redditor yesterday, and since then has made its way around the internet.

When the specific set of symbols and Arabic writing is sent to an iPhone, the phone crashes immediately and then reboots. After the reboot, if the Messages app was opened in list view before the crash, the Messages app will then crash automatically again when you attempt to open it. However, if the app was open at the point of the conversation where you got the message, you can open the app, but when you try and access a different conversation, Messages will crash again. Sounds like it’s a pretty annoying bug!

Fixes for the bug include sending a reply message to the person who sent the infected message, which apparently then clears the bug. If Messages was open in list view, either have someone send you a message, or send one to yourself via Siri (tell her you want to send a message to yourself) or the Share sheet in one of the other apps on your iPhone.

Aside from these simple fixes, MacRumors says that Apple knows about the issue and its engineers are working on an official fix, which will be released via a software update.

Source: New iOS Bug Crashing iPhones Simply by Receiving a Text Message Includes Fix - Mac Rumors

 

[APX7000]

I wonder if this bug can be exploited to jailbreak current iOS!?!

This is such an odd bug.