Odd Mountain Lion Crashing Bug Brings Down Nearly Any App

MacRumors · Feb 4, 2013, 09:21 AM

One of the fastest-spreading stories of the weekend has been a strange OS X Mountain Lion bug that can crash almost any Mac app running any version of OS X 10.8, reported on Open Radar.

The initial bug report stated that typing 'File:///' (without the quotes) into almost any app causes the app to crash.

Follow-up testing has shown that the final character needn't be a forward-slash, with almost any character after 'File://' triggering the bug. The issue is also speed-dependent: leaving a brief pause between typing // and the next character will prevent the crash from occurring.

More embarrassingly still for Apple, filing a crash report causes both Crash Reporter and the Console apps to crash. The Console crash can only be cured by running a terminal command:

sudo sed -i -e 's@File:///@F i l e : / / /@g' /var/log/system.log

The Next Web has a detailed analysis of the issue, noting that it is related to Apple's Data Detectors feature for automatically recognizing dates, locations and other information in text for addition to Address Book or Calendar entries.

While it is rather surprising that the issue took so long to receive publicity, Apple is now likely to include a fix for the problem sooner rather than later. It is, however, unknown whether Apple will squeeze a fix into the upcoming OS X 10.8.3 that has been in developer testing for over two months.

Article Link: Odd Mountain Lion Crashing Bug Brings Down Nearly Any App

zin · Feb 4, 2013, 09:23 AM

Quote:

More embarrassingly still for Apple, filing a crash report causes both Crash Reporter and the Console apps to crash.

Laughed way more than I should have.

Wokis · Feb 4, 2013, 09:25 AM

Must. Test. Now!

ConCat · Feb 4, 2013, 09:25 AM

Works in Safari. Neat!

It's a case-sensitive bug just so you all know.

EDIT: Oh yes, that makes part of the article incorrect: "with almost any character after 'file://' triggering the bug" That would be "File://"

longofest · Feb 4, 2013, 09:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ConCat

Works in Safari. Neat!

It's a case-sensitive bug just so you all know.

I suppose it's "neat", but keep in mind in that this kind of core system vulnerability could potentially be exploited to put malware everywhere.

jpetticrew · Feb 4, 2013, 09:30 AM

Didn't crash my terminal.

ConCat · Feb 4, 2013, 09:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jpetticrew

Didn't crash my terminal.

That means it's probably a bug in a proprietary Apple layer. I don't believe Terminal uses Apple tech for its text rendering (besides the usual Quartz layer for drawing...).

RedCroissant · Feb 4, 2013, 09:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jpetticrew

Didn't crash my terminal.

And you're running Mountain Lion?

thedoctor · Feb 4, 2013, 02:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jpetticrew

Didn't crash my terminal.

cmd-O and then type File:///

boom

----------

Quote:

Originally Posted by thedoctor

cmd-O and then type File:///

Just found that the crash can be stopped by turning off the DataDetectors use in individual applications, e.g. ..

defaults write com.apple.terminal DisableDataDetectors YES

----------

Quote:

Originally Posted by zioxide

typing file:/// causes it to crash?

here's an idea: don't type file:///

Nope ... don't type ... File:///

needfx · Feb 4, 2013, 09:30 AM

buckle your seat-belts, crashes ahead

roadbloc · Feb 4, 2013, 09:30 AM

Heh. Wonder if it effects any other versions of OS X.

justperry · Feb 4, 2013, 09:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by roadbloc

Heh. Wonder if it effects any other versions of OS X.

You might find that answer here, at least it is not an issue on 10.5.8

Crash Apps by simply typing File:///

f0rdness · 09:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by roadbloc

Heh. Wonder if it effects any other versions of OS X.

Doing it in Safari on Snow Leopard just causes it to minimise the window... **edit** and brings up finder with the root of the HDD, odd never new that one before.

However:

iChat

ConCat · Feb 4, 2013, 09:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by longofest

I suppose it's "neat", but keep in mind in that this kind of core system vulnerability could potentially be exploited to put malware everywhere.

I know. It's just rare that a bug is so incredibly easy to produce like this. It makes me wonder how they missed it... Someone needs to update Apple unit tests.

Ed91 · Feb 4, 2013, 09:32 AM

Odd, it doesn't seem to work for me. I'm aware it's case sensitive.. still nothing. Hm.

[Edit] I lied, it does work. I just wasn't typing fast enough.

gnasher729 · 09:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by longofest

I suppose it's "neat", but keep in mind in that this kind of core system vulnerability could potentially be exploited to put malware everywhere.

And that, my friend, is utter nonsense.

There is no vulnerability. There is an embarrassing bug that causes an exception to be thrown, which is not handled (because it shouldn't have been thrown), and uncaught exceptions stop the application from running. This would be inconvenient if it happened in a common situation, but Mountain Lion has been out for many months without anyone noticing, so nobody is inconvenienced. But importantly, because the effect of the bug is to stop the application from running, it is not something that can be exploited for malware.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ConCat

I know. It's just rare that a bug is so incredibly easy to produce like this. It makes me wonder how they missed it... Someone needs to update Apple unit tests.

"Easy to reproduce" doesn't mean "easy to find". This should have been found in a code review (someone checked that a URL is a "file url" by checking that it starts with the characters "file://" which is obvious nonsense - "File://" or "fIlE://" is perfectly legal), but anybody who is clever enough to write a unit test for the "File" case would also have been clever enough to get the code right in the first place.

ConCat · Feb 4, 2013, 09:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gnasher729

And that, my friend, is utter nonsense.

There is no vulnerability. There is an embarrassing bug that causes an exception to be thrown, which is not handled (because it shouldn't have been thrown), and uncaught exceptions stop the application from running. This would be inconvenient if it happened in a common situation, but Mountain Lion has been out for many months without anyone noticing, so nobody is inconvenienced. But importantly, because the effect of the bug is to stop the application from running, it is not something that can be exploited for malware.

Well, truly malicious malware might be able to use this to cause your apps to repetitively crash. Especially given how trivial it is to automate text entry on a Mac using simple AppleScript commands.

Preclaro_tipo · Feb 4, 2013, 09:37 AM

Hopefully this helps someone.

SlCKB0Y · Feb 4, 2013, 06:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gnasher729

But importantly, because the effect of the bug is to stop the application from running, it is not something that can be exploited for malware.

Are you claiming that that a crashing application cannot be exploited for malware ever or just in this situation?

bushido · Feb 4, 2013, 09:25 AM

i remember back in the ML betas Safari would crash if u'd type xy.com/

not sure if i remember exactly, it had something to do with / as well however

ikramerica · Feb 4, 2013, 09:27 AM

Yep, pretty neat. Took down Safari and NotePad. At least it doesn't lock up the Finder too. Pretty easy to get out of.

For the vast majority of us, we will never type that string. For a few of you, it's something you need to type often...

Squilly · Feb 4, 2013, 09:25 AM

Leave it to Apple for this... Nice job.

azentropy · Feb 4, 2013, 09:27 AM

Not a bug, it is a feature!

Fresh Pie · Feb 4, 2013, 09:30 AM

Ugh. I just tried to contact an Apple representative about this, and as soon as I described the problem, they hung up on me. This bug goes deep, man.

Verita · Feb 4, 2013, 09:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fresh Pie

Ugh. I just tried to contact an Apple representative about this, and as soon as I described the problem, they hung up on me. This bug goes deep, man.

Stop trying to crash the Apple campus!

Feb 4, 2013, 09:21 AM	#1
MacRumors macrumors bot Join Date: Apr 2001	Odd Mountain Lion Crashing Bug Brings Down Nearly Any App One of the fastest-spreading stories of the weekend has been a strange OS X Mountain Lion bug that can crash almost any Mac app running any version of OS X 10.8, reported on Open Radar. The initial bug report stated that typing 'File:///' (without the quotes) into almost any app causes the app to crash. Follow-up testing has shown that the final character needn't be a forward-slash, with almost any character after 'File://' triggering the bug. The issue is also speed-dependent: leaving a brief pause between typing // and the next character will prevent the crash from occurring. More embarrassingly still for Apple, filing a crash report causes both Crash Reporter and the Console apps to crash. The Console crash can only be cured by running a terminal command: sudo sed -i -e 's@File:///@F i l e : / / /@g' /var/log/system.log The Next Web has a detailed analysis of the issue, noting that it is related to Apple's Data Detectors feature for automatically recognizing dates, locations and other information in text for addition to Address Book or Calendar entries. While it is rather surprising that the issue took so long to receive publicity, Apple is now likely to include a fix for the problem sooner rather than later. It is, however, unknown whether Apple will squeeze a fix into the upcoming OS X 10.8.3 that has been in developer testing for over two months. Article Link: Odd Mountain Lion Crashing Bug Brings Down Nearly Any App
	1

Feb 4, 2013, 09:25 AM	#3
Wokis macrumors regular Join Date: Jul 2012 Location: Stockholm, Sweden	Must. Test. Now! __________________ 13" Macbook Air 2012, i5-3427U, Intel HD 4000, 8GB RAM, 128GB SSD \| iPad Mini 16GB White \| iPhone 5 32GB Black
	2

Feb 4, 2013, 09:25 AM	#4
ConCat macrumors 6502a Join Date: Jul 2012 Location: behind you. No, seriously.	Works in Safari. Neat! It's a case-sensitive bug just so you all know. EDIT: Oh yes, that makes part of the article incorrect: "with almost any character after 'file://' triggering the bug" That would be "File://" __________________ Con + Cat
	1

Feb 4, 2013, 09:30 AM	#6
jpetticrew macrumors 6502a Join Date: May 2009 Location: Texas	Didn't crash my terminal. Attached Thumbnails __________________ "Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works." - Steve Jobs
	3

Feb 4, 2013, 09:30 AM	#11
roadbloc macrumors 603 Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: UK	Heh. Wonder if it effects any other versions of OS X. __________________ Roadbloc
	0

Feb 4, 2013, 09:30 AM	#10
needfx macrumors 65816 Join Date: Aug 2010 Location: macrumors apparently	buckle your seat-belts, crashes ahead
	2

Feb 4, 2013, 09:32 AM	#15
Ed91 macrumors regular Join Date: Dec 2007	Odd, it doesn't seem to work for me. I'm aware it's case sensitive.. still nothing. Hm. [Edit] I lied, it does work. I just wasn't typing fast enough.
	0

Feb 4, 2013, 09:37 AM	#18
Preclaro_tipo macrumors member Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Indianapolis	NSInternalInconsistencyException Hopefully this helps someone. Attached Thumbnails
	0

Feb 4, 2013, 09:25 AM	#20
bushido macrumors 68040 Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Germany, Europe	i remember back in the ML betas Safari would crash if u'd type xy.com/ not sure if i remember exactly, it had something to do with / as well however __________________ '13 MacBook Pro Retina 2.5 GHz '13 MacBook Pro 2.54 GHz, C2D, 128GB SSD iPhone 5 (white & silver), 16GB iPad 3 white, 32 GB, Wifi+Cellular Apple TV 3
	0

Feb 4, 2013, 09:27 AM	#21
ikramerica macrumors member Join Date: Apr 2009	Yep, pretty neat. Took down Safari and NotePad. At least it doesn't lock up the Finder too. Pretty easy to get out of. For the vast majority of us, we will never type that string. For a few of you, it's something you need to type often...
	0

Feb 4, 2013, 09:25 AM	#22
Squilly In Time-Out Join Date: Nov 2012 Location: PA	Leave it to Apple for this... Nice job.
	2

Feb 4, 2013, 09:27 AM	#23
azentropy macrumors 65816 Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Surprise	Not a bug, it is a feature!
	14

Feb 4, 2013, 09:30 AM	#24
Fresh Pie macrumors 6502 Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Vermontpelier	Ugh. I just tried to contact an Apple representative about this, and as soon as I described the problem, they hung up on me. This bug goes deep, man.
	25

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