A new major bug has been discovered for iOS, which causes app crashes and repeated force closes. It can apparently cause the device to freeze and reboot and even enter into a bootloop error, as soon as a Telugu character is pasted in the any TextField, Label or TextView. According to a report by MobileWorld, the bug also effects watchOS, macOS and is most severely affecting iPhones. As soon as the character is entered into a text field or received by an iPhone, it can cause apps like WhatsApp, Twitter and more to force close.
As per the report, if the Telugu symbol is displayed in a notification by an iPhone, it can also crash Springboard, which handles the home screen and many other major functions in an iPhone. Also, if the device is restarted while Springboard reboots, it can cause a bootloop error which can only be solved by reinstalling the OS in Device Firmware Update (DFU) mode. The latest public beta version of iOS 11.3 is reportedly unaffected by the bug and as per its bug report filing, Apple already knows about the issue. We have not shown the Telugu character here as it could be used for malicious purposes.
This is not the first uncanny bug to affect iOS. The operating system was recently plagued by a ‘chaiOS’ bug, which would crash the Messaging app and could even reboot iPhones. Apple soon released a patch to resolve the issue. Also, the entire source code of iOS 9 was recently leaked online and was promptly taken down after Apple sent a DMCA notice to GitHub, who hosted the code. You can read more about it here.
