ISLAMABAD – A new malware message On WhatsApp has surfaced which canvirtually crash your mobile phone.
Share this message with 10 people and you will win a lottery tomorrow”
How many times have you received this message? Especially on WhatsApp? Toomany times to count probably.
A similar message has been making rounds on the popular messaging app,which is a bit different from your usual, run of the mill spam messages.
It asks you to tap on a black dot, saying that it will cause your phone tohang up for a while. Unlike the previously mentioned message, this actuallyworks.
There’s also another version of the message circulating on WhatsApp. Justreceiving the text can result in your phone becoming unresponsive. Not justWhatsApp, other apps can become unusable too.
Like other message bombs, it works by hiding loads of plain symbols withinthe message (in the black dot), which cause the app or even the OS itselfto overload when you tap it.
According to Android Territory, it contained as much as more than 1900characters despite having only 12 words in the message.
The exploit has so far been confirmed to have worked on both the iPhone andAndroid platforms, and that is frankly enough for it to consideredmainstream.
The text bomb is the second major one that we’ve seen this year. InFebruary, iOS devices running version 11.2.5 were found prone to crashes ifsent a text containing a particular Telugu font.
The good news is that while it is a nuisance, the text bomb will verylikely not have any long-term consequences on the health of your phone.