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Malicious Link Texted to Mac and iOS Devices Can Cause Freezes and Resprings [Updated]
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I think it only works on iOS 10 and 11. iOS 9 doesn't have the fancy Messages upgrades that allow the preview.The sad part is that iPhone 5/5c and older will forever susceptible to this bug.
The sad fact is that as Apple grows, it will be more of a target for things like this. Back in the "Mac vs PC" days, Apple had what, <5% market share of computers and 0% of the mobile world. Why would anyone spend their time to focus on any hacks/malware/virus for a platform of that size?
Now Apple is one of the biggest players in both computing and mobile, and here we see people going out of their way to bring it down. For so long the mentality was "Apple doesn't get viruses", and people took this as both OS being impenetrable. Now we are seeing that both OS have lots of bugs just like everyone else, and Apple's reputation for being the best 5-10 years ago was simply because it was an irrelevant company. I fully expect more bugs and issues to come out on a regular basis in the future, but most Apple fans (fans itself is ridiculous, it's a business, not a sports team) are so blinded by it that unlike Windows users who had to use that OS out of necessity usually, they will excuse Apple in any way they can.
Now Apple is one of the biggest players in both computing and mobile, and here we see people going out of their way to bring it down. For so long the mentality was "Apple doesn't get viruses", and people took this as both OS being impenetrable. Now we are seeing that both OS have lots of bugs just like everyone else, and Apple's reputation for being the best 5-10 years ago was simply because it was an irrelevant company. I fully expect more bugs and issues to come out on a regular basis in the future, but most Apple fans (fans itself is ridiculous, it's a business, not a sports team) are so blinded by it that unlike Windows users who had to use that OS out of necessity usually, they will excuse Apple in any way they can.
Thanks man. You take the time to look into the problem, why it happens, and explain what could be done to prevent it from occurring. You get two upvotes for your trouble.
“Let’s tie Tim Cook to a wicker and burn him in a shared blood ritual!” Top rated comment.
And, pray tell just how is this a security issue?
It's a bug - shock horror. Is it annoying? Absolutely. Should the user be forced to take these mitigation steps? Probably not. That said, mitigation is at hand and can be deployed easily by the user or a friend.
At the least this should be a wake up call to have Apple allow users to block any domain they want from Previews in the next release without resorting to turning on Adult Block mode.
That said, it's a user visible bug in an ever increasingly complex operating system running on a device infinitely more* powerful than the computers we used to send man to the moon on.
And whilst I'm on it...
Never ceased to be amazed at the rampaging hordes of folk screaming out lines such as 'Apple's lost it's way', 'IOS n is the buggiest ever' ,'Sue sue SUE!' all stated by idiots who've blithely forgotten about yesterday's issues and focus instead on today, oblivious to the ever increased complexity of a smartphone operating system and how much we expect it to do today than we ever did just a couple of years back.
Nope, these folk - apparently all of them highly qualified software engineers all, know more about software design than software engineers do, and, as a result, feel the job they do is shoddy and unacceptable.
Yet, very very few of them I'd warrant, have ever worked on a complex software application, yet alone on an operating system firmware or a kernel.
Everyone's a critic...
* a little bit of hyperbole in the morning can go a long way!
This has nothing to do with security. It's a bug with rendering a unicode on a website.
I was referring to the "and older". At least you can block this in Settings so it's not too bad.
I recommend buying a Raspberry Pi. Completely blew me away how much value is offered by a $35 computer (that's their top end model. They have cheaper models for less. And I didn't forget a zero.)
You don't, but I don't doubt there's some way to receive phone text messages on it. Turn off iMessage on your iOS devices and suddenly everything will receive the same content. Or just switch to WhatsApp or something if you don't need to be reachable via your phone number on it.
Hardly. Security is a game of cat and mouse and Apple is far ahead of other OSs in this regard.
M$ sucks less than it used to and Apple is a little less polished than it used to be. You’re right that Apple is still better, but the gap between them has turned from the Atlantic into the Mediterranean.
I think that’s a fair assessment. MS has gotten better at a rate that Apple hasn’t.
How does SMS blocking from a third party app work in iOS? (Especially as it relates to iMessages.)
Afraid I don’t understand your question. The robocall/spam blocker I’m testing with my phone app, also flags text messages from suspicious sources. If this particular threat is distributed via iMessage, I imagine it could be intercepted by this app. How does it work? Dunno. A phone call is forwarded to the app’s service for vetting. If it passes the crowdsourced blacklist, it is routed back to your phone. It may be that text messages go through a similar process.
That's what I'm wondering. I know for calls this kind of thing was implemented as part of CallKit, but I'm not quite sure if that includes anything for messaging, and in particular iMessage which is controlled by Apple directly essentially.