Yesterday, we reported a new bug which can crash iOS and macOS. This bug is a single character from the Telugu language spoken by about 70 million people in parts of India. Once this character is imputed to any messaging app like WhatsApp and Facebook or received by an iPhone or iPad, the app crashes and refuses to come back on and in worse case scenarios, the entire OS goes down which may require a DFU reset to fix it. At this point, do not force a reboot because it may put the device into a boot-loop, where the device continually restarts.
Temporary Solution
If a messaging app on your iPhone or iPad is already stuck by this bug, simply contact a friend to send you a sort of “rescue message” in a different thread. When you receive the message, tap on the “rescue message” notification, then click on the “back button” in the messaging app to get back to your list of chat threads and then delete the thread with the Tengulu character.
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Next Update To Bring Fix
This bug does not affect iOS 11.3 thus we are not surprised that Apple has a solution so soon. Today, the company confirmed the presence of the bug and it stated that the new iOS, tvOS, watchOS, and macOS versions already takes care of this vulnerability. However, it will roll out a fix to the older iOS version in the next update. Apple said:
The bug is not only fixed in current betas of iOS, macOS, tvOS, and watchOS, it’ll also be made available to the current release versions of all the operating systems as well. So, for example, though the bug is fixed in iOS 11.3 beta, Apple will push out an update to iOS 11.2.5, the current release version, to fix the problem as well. That’ll make sure everyone gets the fix as quickly as possible.
Several messaging apps iMessage, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Gmail, and Outlook have all crashed when this symbol is used. The fix will be coming to the current iOS 11.2.5 public version soon.
