A serious iPhone text bomb has now been discovered which can only be fixed with a full device wipe. Google’s Project Zero found this critical bug, who’ve also reported about other major issues of products from different companies.
Google found the bug in April this year. However, as per the group’s policy, a public disclosure is only allowed if Apple fixes the bug or after 90 days since informing them of the vulnerability. As expected, Apple rolled out a fix for the same in iOS 12.3. Hence, all details about this issue are now disclosed to the public, such as steps to reproduce the bug.
Google’s Project Zero team found that sending a malformed iMesage to a Mac or an iPhone causes several issues on these devices. For instance, a malicoius message receieved on the Mac can crash the soagent, however, users can recover by relaunching the service.
Bug causes Springboard to crash on an iPhone
Things, however, go up a notch on the iPhone as the bug causes the Springboard to crash and then fails to reload. Even rebooting doesn’t help in this case, as the bug reappears after unlocking the iPhone.
Google explained the only way to rectify the issue is to wipe the device completely with Find my iPhone, put it in recovery mode and update via iTunes. However, in case of a device where iMessage is disabled, it will not be affected.
As already mentioned, Apple shipped a fix for this issue in iOS 12.3. Hence, all users are advised to update their iPhones or iPads as soon as possible to ensure they are safe. Also, users are recommended to activate the automatic software update in iOS 12 in order to be not impacted by such issues. Tu tuen on automatic update in iOS 12, Just head over to Settings, then navigate to the General Section, and select the software update option.
