A recent bug discovered on iPhones might surprise you with its simplicity and impact. Curious what's going on? Read on to find out more.
Huawei P40 and P40 Pro: the technical sheets are out there!
iPhones in danger?
We are in the beta period of iOS 18, and several bugs are often discovered before the final release. This week, a new bug was identified by a security researcher on Mastodon. This bug, caused by a sequence of four characters, can cause your device to crash. The string in question is “”: followed by any fourth character.
Mastodon, a decentralized social network, is increasingly used by cybersecurity experts to share their findings. A researcher has published his observations about this bug on this platform. Tests carried out by specialized sites show that this problem mainly affects the Spotlight search functionality and the App Library on iOS 17.
Facebook announces the death of the phone number
Why such a bug on the iPhone?
Let’s get down to business: what exactly happens when these characters are typed, and what are the implications? When you type “”: followed by a fourth character, the iPhone is unable to process this sequence properly. This causes Springboard to crash, restarting the UI without completely rebooting the device.
Testing on different versions of iOS shows that this bug is not uniformly present. On iOS 18 and iOS 18.1, for example, Spotlight search freezes briefly, but Springboard does not crash completely. This phenomenon is not entirely new to iOS. In 2015, the “Effective Power” bug caused similar, but more serious, disruptions.
Fairphone 3: the sustainable and fair smartphone gets a third version
| Résumé | |
|---|---|
| 📱 | Bug caused by four specific characters |
| 🌐 | Discovered by a researcher on Mastodon |
| 💻 | Causes Springboard to crash |
| 🔄 | Soft reboot of the device |
| ⚠️ | Not a major security flaw |
How to protect yourself from this bug?
Apple has yet to officially comment on this discovery. However, the company is usually quick to fix these types of issues via software updates. In the meantime, users are strongly advised to avoid typing these characters into Spotlight search or the App Library.
To avoid this bug, users can take some simple precautions. For example, avoid using the “:” characters in searches. Also, keeping your iPhone up to date is essential, as Apple can roll out a corrective update at any time.
- Avoid typing “:” characters in Spotlight search.
- Keep your iPhone up to date to get fixes.
- Watch for Apple announcements for an update.
This bug, while annoying, does not seem to pose a major security threat. The question is: how many other similar bugs are still hidden in our everyday devices?
Get IPTV Free Trial Now