Google’s Project Zero
Google launched a project named zero in which they discover flaws in the software of various companies. This project’s focus is to bring flaws of the companies to the public but only if the company doesn’t respond earlier. They give 90 days for those flaws to be fixed before revealing those to the public.
A flaw with Apple’s iMessage
Recently the regarding a flaw in Apple’s iMessage which would cause iPhones to crash numerous times. Google’s Project Zero was first discovered and revealed to Apple back in April. This issue affected macOS and iOS as well.
The issue on macOS and iOS
The issue would see a malformed message containing a text key cause an exception which would end up causing the system to crash. On a Mac, this flaw would cause “soagent to crash” but on iOS, the issue affects Springboard which is what powers the device’s home screen. When they receive this message through iMessage would cause springboard to crash and respawn repeatedly and make the phone unfunctional. On Mac it only causes soagent to crash but on iPhone, it flaws the Springboard and affecting the UI of the phone.
How to operate the iPhone again
It’s strange that this flaw would even survive a full reboot of the machine with the crashing of the device continuing as soon as the device is unlocked. The only way to start and operate the device again is by wiping it completely, that’s probably not feasible for most users.
Response from Apple
Luckily, this flaw of the iMessage was fixed by Apple long before Google’s Project Zero revealed it to the public. Apple is a firm that always tries to bring ease to its users. This flaw could’ve destroyed the use of iPhones forever but Apple not only just admitted the mistake but also updated it with a new and flaw-free version for its users. This flaw was revealed today but this issue was fixed in Ios 12.3 which was released back in May.
