Video bug crashes Apple iPhones
SAN FRANCISCO — There is a new iPhone-killer on the loose, and it comes in the form of a video that can crash most of Apple’s phones. Playing the malicious video, which is circulating online, in Safari causes iPhones to slow down to a crawl until they stop working altogether.
Devices that play the iPhone-killing video will remain usable for a couple of minutes before growing more sluggish and then crashing; but there are no long-term effects. PHOTO: Screenshot from EverythingApplePro YouTube video
SAN FRANCISCO — There is a new iPhone-killer on the loose, and it comes in the form of a video that can crash most of Apple’s phones. Playing the malicious video, which is circulating online, in Safari causes iPhones to slow down to a crawl until they stop working altogether.
The iPhone-freezing video, discovered by EverythingApplePro, is a short MP4 clip of someone standing by a bed with the words “Honey” written across the screen.
After playing the clip, affected iPhones will remain usable for a couple of minutes before growing more sluggish and eventually crashing altogether.
It is not clear why the video has this effect, but it could be corrupted or infected with a malicious bug. It has the same result even if only partly played.
The video appears to have the same effect on all versions of iOS back to iOS 5, freezing old and new iPhones so that they are unusable.
On iOS 10.2 beta 3 it goes one step further by causing the phone to display the spinning wheel that normally indicates powering off.
The bug is reminiscent of the discovery of a certain date that could kill an iPhone and the “effective power” text message flaw that Apple fixed last year.
It does not seem to have the same result on Android and Windows devices.
How to protect your iPhone
Apple normally fixes bugs such as these in its software updates but until it does so, iPhone owners should be extra careful when clicking on suspicious or unsolicited links.
If someone sends you a link to a video that you do not recognise, avoid clicking on it until you know what it is.
How to fix your iPhone if you have seen the video
If you watch the video by mistake and your iPhone freezes up, you can fix your iPhone with a hard reboot.
To do this on any iPhone model other than the iPhone 7, press and hold the home and power buttons at the same time for at least 10 seconds until the Apple logo appears.
On an iPhone 7, you can hard reset by holding the power and volume decrease buttons.
After the Apple logo appears, release the buttons and your iPhone should restart normally.
The video does not seem to have a long-term effect on the phones, according to 9to5Mac. THE TELEGRAPH
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