Apple won't wait for iOS 11.3 to fix Indian character bug, plans to roll out interim iPhon...

AppleInsiderAppleInsider
Posted:
in iOS edited February 2018
While the fix for the Indian language character bug is in the iOS 11.3 and macOS 10.13.4 betas, Apple is not waiting for them to issue an update, which will rectify the issue at least on iPhones and iPads.




On Thursday afternoon, Apple told The Verge that it is planning to release an iOS 11 update "soon" that will fix the crashes associated with the character. A timetable for release of what is likely to be iOS 11.2.6 is unknown.

The character is in India's Telugu language, and if it is received, the iOS Springboard not only crashes but prevents Messages from opening again. The fix is to get another person to send a benign message, at which point it should be possible to delete the offending thread.

Affected third-party apps include Gmail, Outlook, WhatsApp, and Facebook Messenger. It can potentially be harder to remove contaminated messaging threads, depending on the software.

At the same time, some other messaging apps like Skype and Telegram seem to be immune.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 10
    wood1208wood1208 Posts: 2,913member
    How many Telugu language users are iPhone users ? Few so why rush ? I rather have Apple add Touch ID feature that acts "Return to Home Screen" but doesn't require to click Home button, similar to Touch ID unlocking iPhone. Can be turn ON/OFF under Settings->Touch ID & Passcode".

    edited February 2018
  • Reply 2 of 10
    tex210tex210 Posts: 15member
    India is a market that has the opportunity to grow. This must be fixed quickly to show Apple’s commitment. 
  • Reply 3 of 10
    welshdogwelshdog Posts: 1,897member
    I wish they would fix the displaced dock issue in iPad.  Or maybe the out of order texts in Messages.  Those two bugs have been around for two versions of iOS and no change yet.

    https://discussions.apple.com/message/33005755?start=0&tstart=0 iPad Dock thread
    https://discussions.apple.com/message/33003130?start=0&tstart=0 Messages out of order thread

    netrox
  • Reply 4 of 10
    volcanvolcan Posts: 1,799member
    wood1208 said:
    How many Telugu language users are iPhone users ? Few so why rush ? I rather have Apple add Touch ID feature that acts "Return to Home Screen" but doesn't require to click Home button, similar to Touch ID unlocking iPhone. Can be turn ON/OFF under Settings->Touch ID & Passcode".

    tex210 said:
    India is a market that has the opportunity to grow. This must be fixed quickly to show Apple’s commitment. 
    As far as I know Telugu is not a supported language in iOS. The fix needs to be something along the lines of: If it is an unrecognized character it gets ignored/replaced with default unknown placeholder character but at all costs prevent the error from bringing down the phone. It really doesn't have anything to do with commitment to India. That was just an example of the problem. Could happen in other unsupported languages as well.
    tex210
  • Reply 5 of 10
    tex210tex210 Posts: 15member
    Perception goes a long way. If everyone is reporting this issue, it does show commitment to quickly fix it. I do agree that any unknown character should gracefully fail. 
    EsquireCats
  • Reply 6 of 10
    Soldier00Soldier00 Posts: 1member
    Here is the fix for it, watch the video and share it please:




    I figured it out.
  • Reply 7 of 10
    bestkeptsecretbestkeptsecret Posts: 4,265member

    The Indian Character:


  • Reply 8 of 10
    bonobobbonobob Posts: 382member
    volcan said:
    wood1208 said:
    How many Telugu language users are iPhone users ? Few so why rush ? I rather have Apple add Touch ID feature that acts "Return to Home Screen" but doesn't require to click Home button, similar to Touch ID unlocking iPhone. Can be turn ON/OFF under Settings->Touch ID & Passcode".

    tex210 said:
    India is a market that has the opportunity to grow. This must be fixed quickly to show Apple’s commitment. 
    As far as I know Telugu is not a supported language in iOS. The fix needs to be something along the lines of: If it is an unrecognized character it gets ignored/replaced with default unknown placeholder character but at all costs prevent the error from bringing down the phone. It really doesn't have anything to do with commitment to India. That was just an example of the problem. Could happen in other unsupported languages as well.

  • Reply 9 of 10
    mknelsonmknelson Posts: 1,125member
    wood1208 said:
    How many Telugu language users are iPhone users ? Few so why rush ? I rather have Apple add Touch ID feature that acts "Return to Home Screen" but doesn't require to click Home button, similar to Touch ID unlocking iPhone. Can be turn ON/OFF under Settings->Touch ID & Passcode".

    Because people have been using it as a prank/attack vector.

  • Reply 10 of 10
    dewmedewme Posts: 5,362member
    wood1208 said:
    How many Telugu language users are iPhone users ? Few so why rush ? I rather have Apple add Touch ID feature that acts "Return to Home Screen" but doesn't require to click Home button, similar to Touch ID unlocking iPhone. Can be turn ON/OFF under Settings->Touch ID & Passcode".

    I suspect the root cause of the bug exposes additional vulnerabilities that have not surfaced - yet. As Mknelson has already stated it is a potential attack vector or exploit in the same way that a buffer overrun is.
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