Twitter trolls are exploiting a new Apple bug to crash your iPhone.
The bug, uncovered on Friday, means a keyboard character from the Indian language Telugu can shut down applications as soon as it shows up in a text field.
Now some Twitter users are inserting the ‘text bomb’ character into their usernames in the hope it will show up on iPhone users’ timelines and crash their app or device.
Twitter trolls are exploiting a new Apple bug to crash your iPhone. The bug, uncovered on Friday, means a keyboard character (pictured) from the Indian language Telugu can shut down applications as soon as it shows up in a text field
Users of the social media site have tweeted their frustrations over the new trend.
@PumpMyBags tweeted: ‘my crypto twitter feed keeps crashing the app so obviosuly ppl r just spamming that indian character that crashes ios apps ; touché crypto twitter’.
Some have tweeted out advice to help those hit by the attacks avoid further crashes.
@TristenHeath wrote: ‘You need to log into Twitter on a non Apple product, and find whoever posted it and then block them. That will stop the crashing’.
The bug affects all of Apple’s devices and almost all versions of its current iOS operating systems.
Opening a message containing the character is enough to crash iOS Springboard, the system app which manages the device’s home screen.
Some Twitter users have taken to the social media site to bemoan the hack, while others have posted advice on how to avoid the glitch
The only operating system safe from the bug is iOS 11.3, which is currently only available to a small number of users as it is tested before a broader release.
Since it surfaced last week, Apple has acknowledged the issue and says it is working to fix it.
Apple gadgets running iOS 11.2.5 or macOS, are susceptible to the bug, which disables access to iMessages.
Other popular messaging apps like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Outlook for iOS, and Gmail, are also cut off.
The bug affects all of Apple’s devices and almost all versions of its current iOS operating systems. Opening a message containing the character is enough to crash iOS Springboard, the system app which manages the device’s home screen (stock image)
News of the bug emerged after reports in Italian blog Mobile World and has since been widely replicated, with numerous confirmations posted online.
The character is from the Telugu language, a Dravidian language spoken in India by about 70 million people, roughly five per cent of the country’s population.
As apps try and fail to load the character, users can get trapped in an endless loop of crashes.
The only way to escape this cycle is to get someone else to message you and delete the thread containing the malicious message.
Writing on Mobile World last week, blogger Giuseppe Tripodi said: ‘The error we are talking about presents an Indian character that, if received or simply pasted in a text field, can lead to freeze of applications or crashes of the entire operating system.
‘If the character is displayed within an application, the app in question will crash and will continue to close each time you try to start it.
‘The situation gets worse if someone sends you the symbol and iOS tries to show it in a notification.
‘In this case, the entire Springboard will be blocked.
‘If this happens, wait and hope that the Springboard will restart properly, because if you force a reboot of the device, it will bootloop.’