Security researcher shares snippets of web code that cause kernel panic and restart of iPhones and iPads



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Links that cause iPhones and iPads to crash or restart have become a trend in recent years. The last one was published by the security researcher @ pwnsdx on Twitter. What is interesting in particular is that it is based on a simple excerpt of HTML and CSS and causes a complete panic of the device's kernel, beyond a simple crash of the Springboard.

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The bug affects any iOS device that can interpret the background-filter effect, which was introduced for the first time in iOS 7. The few lines of CSS essentially apply a calculated blur effect to each div element. of the page. The accompanying HTML code includes a lot of div elements.

The expensive design in terms of computation overloads the WebKit rendering engine and the system can not be restored other than by kernel panic, Apple logo blocking, and reboot.

You can see the source code of the bug here; these are just a few lines of HTML and CSS. You can open the link "safari-ripper.html" on this page if you wish to try it yourself – but the usual warnings and warnings apply. 9to5Mac has confirmed that it works on iOS 11 and iOS 12, so you do not have to do it. It can also freeze some desktop web browsers.

Unlike similar text message blocking messages that can propagate as emails on iMessage notifications, the user must view a web page containing the problematic code. In the worst case, this code could be embedded in an HTML e-mail message that causes the device to hang when the message is opened.

This means that the risks of real damage are relatively low. That being said, CSS and JavaScript should never be able to delete a system like this. Apple and WebKit groups will undoubtedly roll out a fix in the coming weeks to make their entry into a future iOS update.

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