Crash an apple fan

[rage2]

Originally posted by Mibz
Well now, hold on. The ability to remotely reboot almost any iPhone without privilege is pretty significant. It's not catastrophic, but it's sure as shit something that needs to be taken seriously and fixed immediately.

Agreed. To be more clear as to what happens, it's not a reboot. It's springboard (the app that controls home button/screen) that crashes. Once it dies, you're stuck with a blank screen. You actually have to power off or reboot the phone yourself to relaunch springboard.

On the bright side, it's not a buffer overflow, it's a race condition that causes springboard to crash, so other than an annoyance, there's no security implications.

For those that want to know how to prevent it, the key is to stop that message from showing up in banner notifications or the notification bar. The bug is in the code that renders in that text size.

It also affects the messaging app in the conversation screen, as it uses the same code. This is why sending a message in that chat "fixes" the problem, as it doesn't show up in the conversation list anymore. It doesn't affect the main chat window.

There are a lot of various apps that use that piece of code to render text in that size/format, and those are all susceptible to crashing too. Whatsapp, Facebook (which is why they filtered it all out), Reddit, etc.

Apple can't block it through text message (obviously), but turns out they can't block it at the iMessage level either because it's all encrypted when it flows through their servers. The keys are all held between the sender and receiver, and not Apple.

[sabad66]

Originally posted by rage2

Apple can't block it through text message (obviously), but turns out they can't block it at the iMessage level either because it's all encrypted when it flows through their servers. The keys are all held between the sender and receiver, and not Apple.

ah interesting... that makes sense. just goes to show how secure the platform is. drug dealers must love imessage :P

[jwslam]

Originally posted by rage2
Apple can't block it through text message (obviously), but turns out they can't block it at the iMessage level either because it's all encrypted when it flows through their servers. The keys are all held between the sender and receiver, and not Apple.

So apple isn't keeping a copy of all nudes sent?!!?

[benyl]

Originally posted by kenny
At least Apple has an update system to get the fix into the field quickly Luckily this didn't come out during WWDC as all the crashing phones would've been chaos.

At least Apple will fix it. Isn't there some Android bug out there that Google says it won't fix even though it is a security risk?

How is 5.1.1 treating you? oh wait, only Nexus phones get that.

[rage2]

Originally posted by sabad66
ah interesting... that makes sense. just goes to show how secure the platform is. drug dealers must love imessage :P

Well technically, they can. They can add a device to your Apple ID, which generates a new key for that device, and every iMessage coming your way will be cc'd to that device. They just need to hide the popup on all your existing devices when a new device is added. I'm not sure if they have that capability to backdoor a new phantom device without popup and not have it show up in your devices list, but obviously the ability is there if they code it in.

Both Apple and Google (who's Android security finally rivals iOS) has said they're not helping authorities with this, and the FBI has been pretty vocal about how unhappy they are about it. But that's all marketing, who knows what's really happening behind the scenes. On the surface, there is no way local police will be able to force Apple to spy on you.

But yes, if you're just a drug dealer and not a mafia boss, chances are the cops won't have access to your phone. Just turn off touch ID, set an advanced passcode and they won't be able to extract data if you don't give up the passcode.

[Mibz]

Originally posted by rage2
Just turn off touch ID, set an advanced passcode and they won't be able to extract data if you don't give up the passcode.

[jwslam]

Originally posted by benyl
How is 5.1.1 treating you? oh wait, only Nexus phones get that.

Good job at comparing software updates on 5 iterations of the same device to the hundreds if not thousands available to android users.

It's like: Hey how's your choice of screen sizes? Or how's your wireless charger? Or how's your S-Pen? Or the curved edges on your phone?
Android users have the CHOICE to purchase Nexus devices if those are important to them; there's also a billion ROM's that are loadable and those are available relatively soon after release date.

[benyl]

Originally posted by jwslam

Good job at comparing software updates on 5 iterations of the same device to the hundreds if not thousands available to android users.

It's like: Hey how's your choice of screen sizes? Or how's your wireless charger? Or how's your S-Pen? Or the curved edges on your phone?
Android users have the CHOICE to purchase Nexus devices if those are important to them; there's also a billion ROM's that are loadable and those are available relatively soon after release date.

Relax. It's an inside joke between him and me.

[rage2]

Can't we all just get along? (and not message each other)

[Kobe]

I've been trying to crash an iphone for like 2hrs now, i cant do it tried on a 6 and some 5s and a 4s no luck

[jwslam]

Originally posted by benyl
Relax. It's an inside joke between him and me.

Well then I formally retract my statement
Can we plz be friends

[rage2]

The formatting is critical. Half the ones out there aren't even formatted right.

[firebane]

Originally posted by Mibz
The only laughable part of this discussion is that people are acting as if something similar hasn't happened on Android, Windows Phone or, shit, even PalmOS. [/B]

Hmm I'm curious.. Name a instance of something like this for Android that made the news? I can't seem to recall anything. Same with Windows Phone or Palm OS.

[kenny]

Originally posted by benyl


At least Apple will fix it. Isn't there some Android bug out there that Google says it won't fix even though it is a security risk?

How is 5.1.1 treating you? oh wait, only Nexus phones get that.

Haha, not on iOS so I don't have to be on the absolute latest version for my phone to function properly.

As for the bug, it was fixed in later versions of Androids. Google can't force the OEMs/carriers to push out the updates to old devices though.

Originally posted by jwslam

Well then I formally retract my statement
Can we plz be friends

No, unless you can communicate with them over imessage.

Originally posted by firebane


Hmm I'm curious.. Name a instance of something like this for Android that made the news? I can't seem to recall anything. Same with Windows Phone or Palm OS.

http://thehackernews.com/2014/12/cra...emotely_1.html

Crashes WhatsApp on Android but not on Windows Phone.

[BavarianBeast]

My girlfriend hates me

[firebane]

Comparing a crash of an app to a crash of a OS is completely different.

I realize they are both the same in functionality but one is an option the other is not.

[Mibz]

Originally posted by firebane
Hmm I'm curious.. Name a instance of something like this for Android that made the news? I can't seem to recall anything. Same with Windows Phone or Palm OS.

Is being on the news the key here? Because a quick browse of exploit-db will bring up a bunch of them, and "being on the news" wasn't the point of my post.

Originally posted by firebane
Comparing a crash of an app to a crash of a OS is completely different.

I'm glad you think so, because this is the crash of an app within the OS, not the OS itself.

[firebane]

Originally posted by Mibz
Is being on the news the key here? Because a quick browse of exploit-db will bring up a bunch of them, and "being on the news" wasn't the point of my post.

I'm glad you think so, because this is the crash of an app within the OS, not the OS itself.

If this wasn't made publicly nobody would know.. oh but wait... Its because everyone in the world thinks Apple can do no wrong and they are godly.

[Mibz]

Originally posted by firebane
If this wasn't made publicly nobody would know.. oh but wait... Its because everyone in the world thinks Apple can do no wrong and they are godly.

Are you being serious right now? Honest question.

[kenny]

Originally posted by Mibz
Is being on the news the key here? Because a quick browse of exploit-db will bring up a bunch of them, and "being on the news" wasn't the point of my post.

I'm glad you think so, because this is the crash of an app within the OS, not the OS itself.

Although technically true, iOS users can't change the Springboard app for a third party one like you can on Android. All this control over the Apple eco-system which is supposed to result in a more reliable experience isn't working out. I think that's one of the reasons this bug has turned into such a big story.