A hacker just discovered a second killer text for the iOS Messages. The killer that vincedes3 created was a complex vCard, a virtual business card used to share phone contacts.
The average vCard has 200 to 300 lines of code, while vincedes3 created a vCard with 14,281 lines of code which would result in a crash when iOS Messages tries to open the vCard, Gizmodo reports.
Ignore vCard Messages
iPhone owners who receive such kind of text should ignore it because once iOS Messages crashes, restarting the app or phone would not work. What would happen is the app would attempt to open the vCard message which goes into a loop.
Since the purpose of vincedes3 is to discover and highlight the major flaws in iOS Messages, he also made available a fix by opening a link on the affected iPhone or sending through Siri a text. Any iPhone with iOS 8 through 10.2.1 are affected by the bug, although Android gadgets reportedly are also affected which implies that phone owners should have second thoughts when receiving a vCard message.
Fix On YouTube
According to Gadgets 360, vincedes3 uploaded a video on YouTube which demonstrates how to fix the bug that affects iOS Messages. The video says the bug makes the keyboard of the iOS Messages app useless. iPhone owners affected must use the multitasking page to close the app by swiping it away.
Opening the iOS Messages app would only result in a blank screen. The iPhone owner would also no longer get or send text messages. Hard setting or rebooting the iPhone does not work, although Apple would likely develop a patch and soon send an over-the-air update soon.
In early 2016, Cisco Talos researchers discovered a bug with a malicious TIFF image also kills iOS Message. Until these two recent discoveries, the iOS Messages app was considered relatively stable and secure which only jailbreaks or hacks by cyber weapons dealers from Israel could harm the Apple flagship.
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