ChaiOS a bug that can freeze your phone with a single linkA bug in iOS has been discovered. This chaiOS bug crashes the Messages app and can freeze or restart phone when sent a specially-engineered website link.
The bug was discovered by a software developer Abraham Masri. Abraham Masri gave it the catchy and slightly alarmist name of “chaiOS.” The bug exploits the fact that Messages preloads any links to webpages so it could show users a preview of the page.
Masri is of the view that he created a webpage hosted on GitHub and got its metadata stuffed with hundreds of thousands of unnecessary characters. He suggests that Messages crashes when trying to load all of this un anticipated information, sometimes taking the total operating system down with it.
The bug does not work consistently. Sometimes it crashes Messages, while sometimes it causes lag, or freezes the device, or sometimes it triggers what is known as a ‘respring’ (when iOS reboots the software ‘SpringBoard’ and kicks the user back to the lock screen).
Masri has tested chaiOS successfully on the iPhone X and iPhone 5S. He says it only affects versions of iOS from 10.0 to 11.2.5 beta 5. The bug according to Masari can also crash Messages on macOS.
Finding working copies of a buggy chaiOS link is not very easy. Initially, Masri hosted the bug on GitHub, but this link, alongwith a variety of other mirrors uploaded by the third-parties, has now been taken down by the website. Masri isn’t going to re-upload the bug, he has only released it “to get Apple’s attention.”
If you have received from someone a copy of the bug and it is currently stopping you from using Messages on your iPhone, there are a few fixes you can try
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You can block the domain of site hosting it. So, if the link has come from GitHub, for example, go to your Safari settings, then go to General > Restrictions > Enable Restrictions > Websites > Limit Adult Content > Never Allow > GitHub.io.
You have to delete the thread the link was sent in. This method works if you are quick to delete the thing before the app crashes.
Also you can reset your iPhone to factory settings. It will delete all your files, photos, etc. Don’t do this extreme trick unless you’ve backed up your phone, and even then, it is probably better to just…
Wait for a patch as we ate expecting that Apple will be sending one out soon enough, although the company did not respond to our request for comment, or you can give any additional details on what it is doing to fix chaiOS.
