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Odd Mountain Lion Crashing Bug Brings Down Nearly Any App

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neuropsychguy

macrumors 68020
Sep 29, 2008
2,382
5,666
Crashed TextEdit but not TextWrangler. Doesn't crash Excel 2011. It does crash iTunes though.

The headline is misleading - it's not "nearly any app" it's apps that call specific Apple APIs. Not that that makes it any better, it just is more accurate.

Edit: I was able to crash non-Apple apps only when typing the string into things that call OS X features (e.g., open File - then typing it in the search bar).

This bug is worth fixing but it isn't a serious bug.
 
Last edited:
ConCat

ConCat

macrumors 6502a
Jul 27, 2012
722
0
In an ethereal plane of existence.
gnasher729 said:
If I download malicious software from you (also known as a "Trojan") that can send AppleScript to type text into an app to crash it, then the same software can very easily send AppleScript to the Finder to delete all my documents, or send AppleScript to Mail to mail my documents to some server, and so on. One thing it can do is to send a "Quit" command to each running application via AppleScript. The insecure operation is downloading untrusted software.
Click to expand...

Fair enough. I suppose the biggest issue here is that all of the devs relying on Apple APIs now have a crash in their apps that isn't a result of their code. I suppose a workaround will have to be discovered to deal with this till the issue is fixed.

blackburn said:
It was a joke since apple most likely isn't even running os x in their servers.
Click to expand...

Apple is using OS X for one or two of their servers last I checked. Most of them are running Linux though.
 
Roessnakhan

Roessnakhan

macrumors 68040
Sep 16, 2007
3,518
510
ABQ
Tried sending an iMessage from my phone to my laptop. Crashed iMessage on my computer. Good way to shut up someone.
 
bbeagle

bbeagle

macrumors 68040
Oct 19, 2010
3,541
2,981
Buffalo, NY
Jessica Lares said:
LOL, only in the OS X world would people be excited over a bug that crashes everything. On anything else, people would be furious and be demanding for an update.
Click to expand...

I don't know what you're getting excited about.

On Windows, you can alter a registry setting to force windows to crash on a key combination (ctrl key followed by pressing the scroll lock twice). This seems a lot more likely to happen, by someone changing this registry setting on a PC, and then coming by an unlocked PC and hitting this key combination to crash computers, than someone in OS X typing file://and an app crashing. (I type file:// on windows a lot, but never on OS X. Same as I click CTRL-ALT-DELETE a lot in Windows, but never in OS X.

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blackburn said:
It was a joke since apple most likely isn't even running os x in their servers.
Click to expand...

Yes, Apple is running OS X on some servers. And how is it a joke, since it doesn't make sense?
 
gnasher729

gnasher729

Suspended
Nov 25, 2005
17,980
5,565
ConCat said:
Fair enough. I suppose the biggest issue here is that all of the devs relying on Apple APIs now have a crash in their apps that isn't a result of their code. I suppose a workaround will have to be discovered to deal with this till the issue is fixed.
Click to expand...

A workaround has been discovered ages ago: If you want to use file urls in your text, type them in lowercase.
 
3

3282868

macrumors 603
Jan 8, 2009
5,281
0
So funny, I just read an article about this very issue that was posted with the 10.8 release. Happened on my 2012 MacBook Air and 12-Core Pro, and Mac Mini and... lol

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iMacFarlane said:
Wow, amazing bug. So big brother is watching, logging, analyzing. You could just be in the middle of typ
Click to expand...

^ hahahahaha Very clever, thanks for maki
 
SaxPlayer

SaxPlayer

macrumors 6502a
Jan 9, 2007
713
635
Dorset, England
So, it's not so bad running old hardware then?

At least with Apple failing to update the Mac Pro for longer than some people have successful marriages I'm still forced to run Lion so my machine doesn't crash with this bug.

I'd like to run Mountain Lion IF APPLE UPDATED THEIR PRO HARDWARE MORE OFTEN. Grrrrrr.

Sorry, slightly off topic. :D Couldn't help having a dig. ;)
 
Battlefield Fan

Battlefield Fan

macrumors 65816
Mar 9, 2008
1,063
0
bbeagle said:
Exactly how would this crash an Apple server? Apple servers don't use a GUI to interact with the outside world, therefore no NSTextField. Noobs love to speak without knowing anything.
Click to expand...

Someone wasn't hugged enough as a child. :rolleyes:
 
3

3282868

macrumors 603
Jan 8, 2009
5,281
0
Roessnakhan said:
Tried sending an iMessage from my phone to my laptop. Crashed iMessage on my computer. Good way to shut up someone.
Click to expand...

OT, but how do you delete your OS X Message cache/data? Any time I open the app, I see empty messages with phone numbers that are not associated with any contacts. I delete them individually every time, and yet they still come back, on my Mac Pro and MacBook Air running the same 10.8.X.
 
V

VoR

macrumors 6502a
Sep 8, 2008
917
15
UK
bbeagle said:
I don't know what you're getting excited about.

On Windows, you can alter a registry setting to force windows to crash on a key combination (ctrl key followed by pressing the scroll lock twice). This seems a lot more likely to happen, by someone changing this registry setting on a PC, and then coming by an unlocked PC and hitting this key combination to crash computers, than someone in OS X typing file://and an app crashing. (I type file:// on windows a lot, but never on OS X. Same as I click CTRL-ALT-DELETE a lot in Windows, but never in OS X.
Click to expand...


hmmm...

Strange example? If you're editing the registry, you might have well said :

"on windows/osx/*nix you can make it so when you press the space bar the machine wipes your home drive and then shuts down"
 
T

Thunderhawks

Suspended
Feb 17, 2009
4,057
2,118
Jack Delgado said:
I'm going to go ahead and guess that this will affect 0.00001% of all humans on this earth. Just my guess though.
Click to expand...

You must be an analyst:)

I don't even get the people here who are curious enough to test if this is true.

Why would I need confirmation that I can crash my Mac and apps with something I never do?
 
D

daverso

macrumors regular
Sep 5, 2007
118
222
Please tell me someone remembers punters from the AOL 4 era...
<Font Color = "99999999999" >

:D
 
D

Danielo

macrumors newbie
May 27, 2005
24
0
The Old Continent
Apple is apparently using servers from HP in it's data center, whereby they could be for iCloud services only:
Apple-Racks-2.jpg


Source: http://blog.fosketts.net/2011/06/06/datacenter-equipment-apple/
 
M

musicmed88

macrumors newbie
Aug 21, 2012
3
0
sooo... what's the big deal?

As stated before, this is something no one would normally run into. The guy who called AppleCare made me laugh. Do you really think they already have an internal dialogue going on about this? If anything, it might be a blip on the Engineer's radar which will get addressed at some point.
It kind of makes me sad to see a rumor site of supposed Apple-fans be filled with such negativity all the time. I kind of hope Karma comes and bites you all in the ass such that when they fix this "awful bug", something worse comes out of it.
 
M

MrVinney96

macrumors member
Jan 25, 2011
68
0
Holland :)
There's something odd happening to me regarding Safari.

Whenever I click a link, the browser crashes. It returns to the finder, not even recording the history of what I did. The only way I can click on links and not make the browser crash is when I open it in a new tab.

Just sayin'.
 
mr.steevo

mr.steevo

macrumors 65816
Jul 21, 2004
1,411
940
Patient to Doctor - "Doc, my Mac crashes when I type File://"

Doctor to Patient - "Don't type File://"
 
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