A strange new bug has emerged in iOS that can crash your iPhone with just a few characters. The issue was recently discovered by a security researcher at Mastodon. The bug occurs when you type a certain string of text `“”::` into Spotlight Search or the App Library on your iPhone. You don’t even have to type the exact characters; typing `“”:` followed by any fourth character is enough to crash your device, TechCrunch reported.
Impact on Testing and iOS Versions
9to5Mac ran tests on several iPhones running different versions of iOS to see how widespread this bug is. In the latest version of iOS 17, typing these characters crashes Springboard, the interface that manages your iPhone's Home Screen. This causes a “soft” restart, meaning the Home Screen will restart without completely restarting the entire phone.
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In the upcoming iOS 18 and iOS 18.1 releases, the impact is slightly less severe. Typing characters will cause Spotlight Search to freeze briefly, but it won’t crash Springboard. The issue only occurs when typing in Spotlight Search from your Home Screen or the App Library search bar. Therefore, this issue doesn’t affect other areas of your iPhone.
No Major Security Risk, But Inconvenience
While this bug is certainly annoying, security researchers have stated that it doesn’t pose a significant security risk. There’s no evidence that anyone could remotely exploit this bug; only the iPhone owner could trigger it by manually typing characters. This makes it much less harmful than previous bugs, like the infamous “Efficient Power” bug from 2015, which could crash an iPhone simply by receiving a specific text message.
Apple hasn’t made an official statement about this bug yet. However, we all know that Apple is a company that fixes these types of issues pretty quickly through updates. While it’s unlikely that anyone would accidentally type `“”::`, it’s something to be aware of until Apple releases a fix. If you encounter this bug, you may experience a brief inconvenience, but your iPhone should be back to normal after a quick restart.