Text message crashing Iphones!

I don't have an iPhone, but this thread is not going to be allowed to degenerate into, a flame war
Comments on which OS is the best
Or derogatory comments not allowed
Keep the discussion to handling the current problem

a virus contains "active code" that will run after the defect allows it into the system

this is a bug, it causes a system crash and reset, with the consequence that things do not operate correctly

similar to what happens when you have a corrupted device driver file

Campfire Time wrote:

pconroy328 wrote:
It's not a virus, it's a code defect (a bug). The text contains Arabic and Chinese characters, if I recall correctly. And must contain a specific set of characters in a very specific order.

You can say it's not a virus or malware. And yet that's exactly what malware/viruses do. Take advantage of code defects.

That's what I thought.

Bruce

pconroy328 wrote:
It's not a virus, it's a code defect (a bug). The text contains Arabic and Chinese characters, if I recall correctly. And must contain a specific set of characters in a very specific order.

You can say it's not a virus or malware. And yet that's exactly what malware/viruses do. Take advantage of code defects.

ASCII????? I started with PETSCII

It's not a virus, it's a code defect (a bug). The text contains Arabic and Chinese characters, if I recall correctly. And must contain a specific set of characters in a very specific order.

As a professional nerd who's dealt with internationalization/localization challenges and Unicode, "there, but for the Grace of God, go I..."

I've lamented that life was a lot easier for me, back in the 70's and 80's when we could force English and ASCII on the computing public. ;)

Seattle Steve wrote:

nomad297 wrote:

jorbill2or wrote:
Its not virus .its a text that causes your phone to reboot .. big deal...... its an annoyance :-)

No, it reboots the phone and it disables all text messaging. You have to find out who texted it to you and send them a text out of contacts. Once this text reaches them, the problem is undone. The hard part is working out who sent it to you.

This happened to my son yesterday and this is how we fixed it.

Bruce

That might be how he did it, but it was way more effort than needed. Another message from anyone (even yourself if you have a Mac) will clear it.

The correct procedure to prevent it until the next IOS release is Settings: Notifications: Messages:turn off display on lock screen.

Fortunately I have no friends who are obnoxious enough to send me a message with those specific unicode characters. It's not something that could happen accidentally.

I read about that fix and tried it first, but it didn't work. Thanks for the tip on keeping it from happening again.

Bruce

nomad297 wrote:

jorbill2or wrote:
Its not virus .its a text that causes your phone to reboot .. big deal...... its an annoyance :-)

No, it reboots the phone and it disables all text messaging. You have to find out who texted it to you and send them a text out of contacts. Once this text reaches them, the problem is undone. The hard part is working out who sent it to you.

This happened to my son yesterday and this is how we fixed it.

Bruce

That might be how he did it, but it was way more effort than needed. Another message from anyone (even yourself if you have a Mac) will clear it.

The correct procedure to prevent it until the next IOS release is Settings: Notifications: Messages:turn off display on lock screen.

Fortunately I have no friends who are obnoxious enough to send me a message with those specific unicode characters. It's not something that could happen accidentally.

Isn't that the definition of a virus. Performs some function without your knowledge or approval. There are many levels of damage that can be done.

jorbill2or wrote:
Its not virus .its a text that causes your phone to reboot .. big deal...... its an annoyance :-)

No, it reboots the phone and it disables all text messaging. You have to find out who texted it to you and send them a text out of contacts. Once this text reaches them, the problem is undone. The hard part is working out who sent it to you.

This happened to my son yesterday and this is how we fixed it.

Bruce