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iMessage: Malformed Message Bricks iPhone

bugs.chromium.org

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Re: iMessage: Malformed Message Bricks iPhone

#261

Post by m463 »

romaaeterna wrote: post #135

Speaking as an ex-Apple employee, I'll just point out that a really malicious actor could have used this to harm some significant percentage of the installed iOS infrastructure, and done critical damage to Apple as a company with it. In fact, I don't know the percentage of users still on <12.3, but maybe they still could. A band-aid fix for this one bug should not be where they stop here.

That sounds like code for "Apple can push an update without user consent"

or...

"Apple can turn off imessage to users with OS < 12.3 until users update"

Re: iMessage: Malformed Message Bricks iPhone

#262

Post by michaelmrose »

dang wrote: post #232
michaelmrose wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think I CAN edit it at this point but I will revisit the guidelines. Do you feel that just the sentence that was problematic then?

Yes, I was responding to the one sentence.

Thanks

Re: iMessage: Malformed Message Bricks iPhone

#263

Post by m463 »

JustSomeNobody wrote: post #122

Yet another wrong use of the word bricked. Bricked means bricked and you can’t ever come back from that.

I can't help but imagine what would happen if you take a phone stuck like this to the apple store. Would they save your phone or tell you to reinstall?

Re: iMessage: Malformed Message Bricks iPhone

#264

Post by JustSomeNobody »

iamnotacrook wrote: post #255
JustSomeNobody wrote: post #244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm curious, what component could you replace in this instance to recover the iPhone and not lose data? One could argue that every single component on a device could be replaced to bring it back from the dead, but I would argue it isn't the same device at that point. Bricked is a term that is, and always has been, defined as hardware that is rendered useless by bad software. Replacing hardware components to get a dev…

"One could argue that every single component on a device could be replaced to bring it back from the dead, but I would argue it isn't the same device at that point." This is entering the realms of philosophy. If you get your screen replaced is it any longer your phone? If someone replaced every part of your phone one piece at a time, at teh pace of one piece a week did they suddenly steal it the moment the last piece…

> Rendering useless by bad software - so if you take my linux device and install windows I now have something with objectively worse software than before, and where all my software no longer runs, and which is incapable of reading my ext4 formatting external hard drive. So...you've bricked it?

Obviously not because you can always put Linux back on it. A bricked device, you have no way of doing this. It's useless.

I can't believe all of this discussion simply because people want reuse a word that already means something. It's like the FE devs hijacking "real time". Good grief already.

Re: iMessage: Malformed Message Bricks iPhone

#265

Post by itsokandmay »

chipperyman573 wrote: post #226
inlined wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Iirc the social engineering script was to “hold the alt key and repeatedly tap f4”. That has the two keys far enough from each other in prose to trick more people.

I always heard "hold down alt and press each f key one at a time", people forget about alt f4 if you don't specifically say f4

No harm being a laggot if you are on top. Mod parent up.

Re: iMessage: Malformed Message Bricks iPhone

#266

Post by itsokandmay »

rayiner wrote: post #220
kortilla wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Filter. Spam detection wasn’t exactly a novel idea back then either.

With what? Especially back then, I wouldn’t assume there is anything with a programmable CPU in the data path that can inspect and filter things at line rate.

If payload "d3structiv3bytes" else approve.

Re: iMessage: Malformed Message Bricks iPhone

#267

Post by itsokandmay »

martius wrote: post #111
IloveHN84 wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Turning off iMessage to prevent the bug is like turning off a car to prevent to consume petrol.. what a solution

Turning off (and stop using) a car sounds like a great solution to prevent petrol consumption, IMHO.

Not if your car is GrAY and runs on unicorn pellets.

Re: iMessage: Malformed Message Bricks iPhone

#268

Post by pts_ »

marpstar wrote: post #170
pts_ wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hahaha on Yahoo we called it booting.

On AOL we called it "punting", and the apps that facilitated it were the first reason I ever wanted to code.

Not to beat my own drum but I did not agree with the ethics of booting, and while I was too lazy to code back then, I rooted for defensive apps that armored you against getting booted :D. Yahelite on Yahoo was the best.

Re: iMessage: Malformed Message Bricks iPhone

#269

Post by eigenvector »

stiGGG wrote: post #184
plttn wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

iMessage doesn't even warrant a dialog in OOBE on iPhone IIRC. Not sure what pop-up you're talking about then.

I've seen this popup, too. It will send a silent SMS from your device on activation. Depending on your plan this could cost you money.

And depending on where you are, it may be an international SMS, which will either cost a lot or just fail silently.

Re: iMessage: Malformed Message Bricks iPhone

#270

Post by dang »

drieddust wrote: post #167
Razengan wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not all malware is a "virus." Has iOS ever had anything where one app could "corrupt" other apps?

> Not all malware is a "virus." Haha, this is called moving the goal post. Fanboys do this all the time :) Edit: Plenty of buffer overflow and momory corruptions are listed for iOS just in 2019. https://www.cvedetails.com/vulnerability-list.php?vendor_id=...

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