A new bug dubbed chaiOS ” Text Bomb ” can affect iMessage apps on macOS and iOS. On iPhone, a single malicious link can cause the device to crash and with macOS, it kills safari browser.
The bug was discovered by Abraham Masri and it makes the target device to freeze, drain the battery and possibly restart.
He posted the PoC link in GitHub and reported in twitter, at the time of writing the link ends up with 404, seems GitHub administrator removed it.
https://twitter.com/cheesecakeufo/status/953401511429726210
9to5mac reported the chaiOS bug and had mixed results “In some instances, sending the link would cause both the sender and recipient’s device to respiring or cause the Messages app to instantly freeze and crash“.
ChaiOS bug tested with iOS 11.1.2, users don’t require to do any installation, all they need to do is simply sending the malicious link in an SMS message.
The flaw resembles Effective Power bug which hits iPhone a few years before. ChaiOS will not make a serious impact as of now, it can be used to play pranks.
Also Read Apple Released a Critical Security Updates for iOS 11.2.1
“I found a (small) bug that causes the device to freeze, respring, drains the battery, and/or sometimes panic,” says Abraham Masri.
No need to install anything. Just open, tap then paste. Here you can see how it works.
Mitigations – Text Bomb
- Forcing the message app to close and delete the thread.
- Reddit user “TeCHEyE_RDT” suggested to send a message to yourself and delete the threat.
