It could be useful in some scenarios to quickly restart the launcher instead of having to restart the device. But I'm afraid they will fix it. Once it's fixed I'll submit Apple Feedback that the restart feature doesn't work anymore.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
PSA: There's a New Character Bug That Can Cause iPhones to Crash
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
It also works with "<whatever>":<any character>. This makes it more likely to stumble on it. Pasting any JSON into the search field makes it crash.
Next on Mac Rumors, "When good escape sequences go bad."
Seriously, this sounds like a path to finding an exploit.
Seriously, this sounds like a path to finding an exploit.
Because Apple doesn’t want to make you sadder. I mean, they’re humans after all.
/J, in case someone needed clarification
Thanks for the few of you that taught me about "fuzzing" or "fuzz testing" !
There's always something new to learn
Serious question: do they care to? They leave bugs in their OSes for decades and close out people filing rdar over said issues. Security researchers are routinely ghosted over more serious issues. It’s not glitzy to fix bugs (though it is important!) we’re living through Apple in a dysfunction state and their institutional decline doesn’t prioritize fixing bugs because that doesn’t sell services or move units
Good to know about the issue. Hopefully Apple will fix it with the next update.
It just works!
There is a new character bug that can result in a respring on the iPhone or iPad, reports TechCrunch. Typing "":: in the search field after swiping over to the App Library will cause the Springboard to reset, dropping you back at the iPhone's Lock Screen. A respring is not a full reset, and it only takes a few seconds for the iPhone to be functional again.
Typing the same characters into the Settings app search interface will cause the Settings app to crash, but putting it in a Spotlight search doesn't seem to impact anything. The respring seemed to only happen on devices running iOS 17 when we tested, but putting those characters into a search interface on a device running iOS 18 does result in some odd behavior, such as the characters disappearing and the Settings app crashing.
You can actually type in just "": and any other character to cause the respring to happen, so it's something related to the first three symbols in a four character sequence.
Character bugs have in the past spread though Messages and have allowed users to crash the iPhones of others, but this is a much more insignificant issue because the iPhone owner needs to manually type (or paste) the characters into a search interface. There does not appear to be a way to affect an iPhone through Messages or another texting platform.
It's likely Apple will address the issue with an iOS update in the near future.
Article Link: PSA: There's a New Character Bug That Can Cause iPhones to Crash
On a technical level, how does this happen? I wonder what’s special about that sequence of characters to cause a respring/crash
If you work at Apple and you know… I’d be curious to read the RCA
If you work at Apple and you know… I’d be curious to read the RCA
Came here to say this. Your observation about JSON likely speaks to both the discovery and cause of the bug.
I just did. iPhone 12(17.6.1)What percentage of MR users just went into settings and searched for that to see what happens?
These are regular ASCII characters, though.
Not any character, for example not ( or ). But $ crashes it.
Same on iPhone 13 mini running 17.6.1 - doesn't crash at all.
The display language isn't set to US English though, only Siri is set to UK English.
