A new warning has been issued by a security researcher who says typing four simple characters can cause Apple devices to crash. The newly-discovered bug puts iPhones and iPads at particular risk.
Typing four simple characters can cause your iPhone to crash.
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Web security researcher Konstantin revealed the bug earlier this week in a social media post, writing: “Apparently, you can crash your [Apple mobile user interface] iPhone Springboard pretty easily.”
If you swipe past all your Home Screen pages and search for the four characters in the App Library, your Apple iPhone will reload to the Lock Screen. The bug can also be triggered by typing the characters in the search bar of the Settings page.
The four characters that can crash your iPhone are “”:: (two double quotation marks and two colons).
“Do this at your own risk,” Konstantin warned on the social network Mastodon.
Not a security bug
When triggered, this character bug crashes your iPhone’s Springboard, causing it to reload to the Lock Screen. In some cases, the device flashes a black screen briefly before reloading.
Some social media users said the bug can be triggered by typing only the first three characters.
However, researchers told TechCrunch that it does not appear to be a security issue. “It’s not a security bug,” said Ryan Stortz, an iOS security researcher who analyzed the bug. Patrick Wardle, another iOs security researcher, agreed with Stortz.
Experts say the bug can be triggered in the latest version of the iOS 17 and beta iOS 18. The new iOS update, 17.6.2, is likely to address the issue and fix the bug, several reports suggested.
Sanya Jain is an Assistant Editor with Hindustan Times Digital. She has nearly a decade of experience in covering offbeat stories that speak to the everyday experience - from viral videos to human interest copies that spark conversation. Her interests stretch across business, pop culture, social media trends, entertainment and global affairs. Before joining Hindustan Times, Sanya spent two years with Moneycontrol and five years with NDTV. She holds an undergraduate degree in English literature from St Stephen’s College, Delhi, and a master’s in journalism from the Xavier Institute of Communications, Mumbai. Sanya has a sharp eye for spotting emerging trends and looking for newsworthy angles to elevate viral posts into meaningful narratives. She was the first one, for example, to cover Narayana Murthy’s remark on 70-hour work weeks that sparked a national conversation. She is equally at ease writing about business leaders as about the common man, about issues of national importance and memes that amuse social media. Sanya enjoys speaking with content creators, newsmakers and entrepreneurs to transform everyday moments into engaging, slice-of-life stories that resonate with readers. When she is not working, Sanya can be found curled up with a good book. Born and raised in Lucknow, she has spent the last several years in Delhi. She is deeply interested in animal welfare and now spends a lot of her time running after her destructive orange cat.
