iOS Text Bug Also Affects Twitter, Snapchat, WhatsApp and Other Apps

[Sevanw]

I like how people are attacking Apple for this. Yes I'm an Apple fan but I'm not blinded that i expect anything from Apple or any other tech company to be perfect. So quit whining "ermagherd I paid dis much for ifone and it has a bug." It doesn't matter what company it is, what hardware or software, there will always be bugs and glitches. Whining about it in a forum isn't going to do anything, Apple says they have a fix coming, they'll fix it.

People are not attacking iOS or Apple, they're bringing to light how it's millions of blind followers like to spread FUD about other OSs while being in complete denial of the fact that iOS is no different than any other OS when it comes to bugs and issues. These blind followers have extremely short memories so the point must be made when the issue is fresh.

 

[Westside guy]

It is appalling that we're still dealing with situations where an app bug can bring down the OS. Something running in userland should never, ever be able to do that.

(note that "we" means all users of modern computer tech - Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, etc.)

 

[C DM]

It is appalling that we're still dealing with situations where an app bug can bring down the OS. Something running in userland should never, ever be able to do that.

(note that "we" means all users of modern computer tech - Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, etc.)

This is an issue with how the OS handles something, not really a specific app issue, thus the OS level effect. It doesn't really bring down the whole OS in the sense of crippling it or making it unusable, but just causes a crash--it's not to say that's good, or anything like that, but it's not really horrific either.

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Android users are safe for once. LOL Sloppy Apple, just sloppy.

Android has and had its share of issues. Problems exist in all kinds of software, just the nature and reality of it all.

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People are not attacking iOS or Apple, they're bringing to light how it's millions of blind followers like to spread FUD about other OSs while being in complete denial of the fact that iOS is no different than any other OS when it comes to bugs and issues. These blind followers have extremely short memories so the point must be made when the issue is fresh.

Millions of followers are blind and spread FUD? Perhaps hyperbolic rhetorical statements like that are more FUD-like themselves? There are some that will do that, just like there are some that will do it for other companies or services they use and like. This isn't some unique thing to Apple or anything like that, it exists and has existed for pretty much anything and everything under the sun.

 

[Amazing Iceman]

One of my friends tried texting this to me but it didn't work because he's an idiot. My Messages app was slow for a while after receiving it but I was able to delete the message and everything is great now.

What a joker... If any of my friends do that to me, he will meet my fist in his face in return.

Good thing there's now a workaround.

I wonder if it affects Messages on OS X

 

[Traverse]

People are jerks for posting it.

 

[6836838]

But, but..I buy Apple for the premium user experience. I was told by the millions of blind followers that the extra money I was paying for my Apple product was for that Premium User experience. You know, unlike the lag, bug, malware ridden issues from that "OTHER" OS.
Oh, I know what I'll do, I'll patiently wait for a fix like I do for all the other issues that have effected millions of iOS users, then forget this even happened. That way I can go back to believing in paying extra for inferior hardware because I'm enjoying a PREMIUM USER EXPERIENCE. Excuse me now while I order my drink. Bartender, I'll take a cherry Kool Aid with my beer.

Alternatively, go Android and give all your data away to Google. I'm sorry you're not in the market for premium devices. The community will welcome you with open arms if you decide to trade up in the future. Apple make Ferraris, not Chevrolets (these only go in straight lines). Occasionally, premium products break.

 

[teslo]

People are not attacking iOS or Apple, they're bringing to light how it's millions of blind followers like to spread FUD about other OSs while being in complete denial of the fact that iOS is no different than any other OS when it comes to bugs and issues. These blind followers have extremely short memories so the point must be made when the issue is fresh.

you simply spend too much time reading flame-war comments from other teens on the internet. real life offers no such time and effort on such frivolous things that truly matter to no one other than those commenting.

 

[kolax]

This is a bit disturbing - this means that the issue is with Apple's Unicode parsing and may pop-up anywhere on iOS... hopefully they will not just fix that particular character sequence but review the whole parser

Makes you wonder what sort of taint checking they've implemented too..

 

[pmmccarvalho]

If you write <لُلُصّبُلُلصّبُررً ॣ ॣ ॣ ॣ> it will break any app!!! I had to reinstall google translate because of that!!!!

 

[C DM]

If you write <unicode> it will break any app!!! I had to reinstall google translate because of that!!!!

Had to register just to post that clearly making sure that you include the actual problematic text (because without it somehow the statement wouldn't work), right?

 

[ArtOfWarfare]

This is so dumb. Who would even text this to anyone except high school kids?

Trolls. Anyone who would text this is a troll.

I dislike your implication that high school kids would often do this.

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I'm curious - is there a more technical description of how this particular message was discovered / how it probably causes iOS to crash? I'd imagine that there's probably a near limitless number of messages that work and that this one was simply picked because it looks particularly threatening to a western audience, consisting of a single English word, then several unicode characters. I suspect the unicode characters are just gibberish given how repetitive they are.

Also interesting that this bug isn't in OS X. I would think the bug would be somewhere in the Foundation or CoreFoundation library, which is the same between iOS and OS X (and I think NeXT OS, too? Was that the name of the OS?)

 

[PracticalMac]

I blame ISIS for the attack!

 

[xsquid]

"before more permanent damage befalls any users".

Is there any indication that this bug leads to "more permanent damage"? It looks like an annoyance for a minute proportion of iOS users. The MacRumors write-up makes it sound like it could lead to life-threatening injuries (i.e., "permanent damage"). Yellow journalism much?

How about an apple watch? Who knows if it's permanent.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1887636/

 

[Sonmi451]

Trolls. Anyone who would text this is a troll.

I dislike your implication that high school kids would often do this.

High school is often likened to immaturity. That's all I meant. I hold no ill will toward high school kids in general.

 

[sn]

i know right? when i first saw it i figured the worst lol... and i try and avoid pop-culture news media - looks like they still have a pretty good effect on me

Clearly you need to avoid it more.

 

[sn]

I'm curious - is there a more technical description of how this particular message was discovered / how it probably causes iOS to crash? I'd imagine that there's probably a near limitless number of messages that work and that this one was simply picked because it looks particularly threatening to a western audience, consisting of a single English word, then several unicode characters. I suspect the unicode characters are just gibberish given how repetitive they are.

There is some technical detail on the comment thread for the original news story on MR. It's to do with how the Arabic alphabet works. Some characters when placed next to each other combine with one another to create a single more complicated character. Somehow, certain specific combinations can be found which don't work the way they should and cause the phone's memory to run out (I'm trying to remember the post from memory, I may be slightly wrong). This is further complicated by the way that the the language is written, (right-to-left) and the fact that it is combined with a left-to-right language (in this case, English) and Chinese (which can be written in columns and read right-to-left). I don't know the exact detail but worth having a dig through the the original comments if you want to know more.

The idea that this is any way East vs West or that the use of Arabic characters is there to look "threatening" is ridiculous and shouldn't be part of this discussion.

 

[dannys1]

But, but..I buy Apple for the premium user experience. I was told by the millions of blind followers that the extra money I was paying for my Apple product was for that Premium User experience. You know, unlike the lag, bug, malware ridden issues from that "OTHER" OS.
Oh, I know what I'll do, I'll patiently wait for a fix like I do for all the other issues that have effected millions of iOS users, then forget this even happened. That way I can go back to believing in paying extra for inferior hardware because I'm enjoying a PREMIUM USER EXPERIENCE. Excuse me now while I order my drink. Bartender, I'll take a cherry Kool Aid with my beer.

It's a good job you can't just click on a link and have it factory reset your entire phone then... http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2012/09/touchwiz-security-bug-could-wipe-your-samsung-galaxy-phone/

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Doesn't anyone remember we've had EXACTLY this bug with a set of different arabic characters occur about a year ago? My friend was forever sending it via iMessage until it was fixed the annoying d.

I don't see why this one is being hyped 10x more. Its exactly the same issue.

 

[coolfactor]

This is a bit disturbing - this means that the issue is with Apple's Unicode parsing and may pop-up anywhere on iOS... hopefully they will not just fix that particular character sequence but review the whole parser

Of course. That's why it's affecting more than one app. Not every possible angle can be tested when developing such complex software. Anyone that thinks that Apple made a "mistake" by allowing this bug to exist is blind to the realities of software engineering. There's probably a dozen more bugs just like this one that existing in any software platform around the world, but nobody has discovered them yet. It's just how things are.

Apple will fix this, and make their software even better. That, we know.

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I don't see why this one is being hyped 10x more. Its exactly the same issue.

It's being hyped because people love hype. No other reason.

 

[TMRJIJ]

Youtube app crashes when viewing the message in the comment section. This is pretty funny.

 

[PracticalMac]

There is some technical detail on the comment thread for the original news story on MR. It's to do with how the Arabic alphabet works. Some characters when placed next to each other combine with one another to create a single more complicated character. Somehow, certain specific combinations can be found which don't work the way they should and cause the phone's memory to run out (I'm trying to remember the post from memory, I may be slightly wrong). This is further complicated by the way that the the language is written, (right-to-left) and the fact that it is combined with a left-to-right language (in this case, English) and Chinese (which can be written in columns and read right-to-left). I don't know the exact detail but worth having a dig through the the original comments if you want to know more.

The idea that this is any way East vs West or that the use of Arabic characters is there to look "threatening" is ridiculous and shouldn't be part of this discussion.

Its called "2 byte" character, and applies to many Asian languages like Japanese, Chinese, Korean. Because they have thousands of unique characters, they need 2 bytes to describe them all.