A notorious bug, dubbed "chaiOS," has been discovered that can freeze or crash your iPhone. The bug gets into action even if the victim doesn't click on a specific link sent through iMessage to deliver it.
The bug was found by a software developer named Abraham Masri when he was trying to break the iOS operating system by inputting random character into its internal code. Later, he posted the information about the bug on GitHub on January 16.
Once it is sent to your iMessage via a text message, it automatically starts working without even requiring the user to click on the link.
iMessage has a tendency of previewing links before the user clicks on them. The bug takes the advantage of this feature to infect the devices. ChaiOs can freeze the iMessage all on its own and is also capable of crashing iMessage again and again. In some cases, it can also force the user to restore the device to factory setting.
Masri, who has tested the chaiOS on iPhone 5S and the iPhone X, claims that the bug can affect the iOS versions 10.0 and above, and even the iOS 11.2.5 beta 5. The vulnerability test is not done on the latest iOS 11.2.5 beta 6 so far. The bug is also capable of affecting the Mac computer, according to Masri.
"My GitHub is publicly accessible, so anyone can copy [the code]. I'm pretty sure someone else has posted it, but I'm not going to repost it," Masri told Buzz Feed.
Masri said he published the bug to alert Apple.
"My intention is not to do bad things. My main purpose was to reach out to Apple and say, 'Hey, you've been ignoring my bug reports.' I always report the bug before releasing something," the developer said.
In some cases, if messages are in a recurring loop, the app will continue crashing no matter how many times you attempt to open it. The last option is to restore your iOS device to factory setting, which will erase all the saved data like photos and video.
