Apple has always boasted of having an operating system with a very high degree of security against attacks. In fact, it has created mechanisms to respond to possible thefts. But not everything is so simple: the latest update of iOS 17 has a bug, or rather a blunder, in its code, which makes the iPhone crash when you type a string of seemingly random characters.
This way, if for some reason you wanted to freeze your phone, all you you would have to do is write these four characters: “”:: in the search bar of the Settings app, or in the search bar in your App Library, which you can reach by swiping right on your Home screen.
This crashes the iPhone’s Springboard (the app that controls the home screen) and closes the Settings menu before sending you back to the lock screen. The strange bug was shared on Wednesday by a security researcher at Mastodon, then made its way to Twitter and was eventually verified by other specialized outlets.
Bug Alert! Your iPhone can crash if you type these four characters#Apple#iPhone#iPhoneCrash#iPhoneBug#Bugpic.twitter.com/vcrImhSFFN
— Smartprix (@Smartprix) August 23, 2024
According to 9to5Mac, it affects iPhones running the latest version of iOS 17 and the beta versions of iOS 18 and iOS 18.1, although it’s possible that other versions could be affected as well. Fortunately, the bug doesn’t seem to pose any real risk – it’s just a clever trick.
Fortunately, This is not a security bugjust an operating system problem that is activated by whoever is in direct contact with the phone. This makes it very different from other errors that also blocked anyone’s phone just by sending them a message or a Tweet that contained problematic characters.
In this case, however, what appears to be happening is that the characters are triggering a “Respring”, which is more or less a simple SpringBoard reboot, or basically a faster way to refresh your phone without doing a full reset. According to Malcolm Hallan iOS developer, the bug is “actually a feature quite useful that allows you to do a quick reset“If you do it as a joke or out of curiosity, nothing serious will happen… although we don’t recommend it either.