‘ChaiOS’ is the latest bug discovered software developer Abraham Masri, that can cause the messaging app of iPhone to crash, or worse. The bug could even freeze your iPhone or restart it.
What triggers it?
The alarming ‘ChaiOS’ bug exploits the fact that iPhone Messaging app preloads the links of web-pages coming through a message. This is where the bug does its job.
Masri explained that he created a webpage hosted on Github and stuffed its metadata with a large number of unnecessary characters. Messages crashes as soon as it tries to load all of this irrelevant information(characters), and even sometimes crashes the entire system.
? Effective Power is back, baby!
chaiOS bug:
Text the link below, it will freeze the recipient’s device, and possibly restart it. https://t.co/Ln93XN51Kq⚠️ Do not use it for bad stuff.
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thanks to @aaronp613 @garnerlogan65 @lepidusdev @brensalsa for testing!— Abraham Masri (@cheesecakeufo) January 16, 2018
Do check if yours lags/freezes/crashes the system, but on your own risk. We do not hold responsibility of your broken iPhones.
However, it was reported that the bug doesn’t work everytime. Sometimes it slows down the application, freezes the device or triggers a “respring”(when iOS reboots the software called SpringBoard and kicks the user back to the lock screen).
Masri himself has tested the bug on iPhone X and 5S and says it only affects iOS versions from 10.0 to 11.2.5 beta 5. The bug can also crash Messages on macOS.