Recently, Google Project Zero security researcher Natalie Silvanovich announced an issue related to iMessage . In the announcement, she specifically stated that if this bug is not fixed, it could potentially create serious problems that will require recovery on Apple phones .
Silvanovich with Project Zero, in a post on the company's blog, said that it was a bug in the handling of messages and was connected to Springboard - the application that handles the home screen of iOS. Specifically, she said that upon receiving such a message, Springboard would repeatedly freeze and stop responding. She noted that even a hard reset would not affect the problem and thus the phone would be practically useless. According to the researcher, there are ways to unlock a blocked device, but a basic requirement is to perform a factory reset. The problem, which was identified last April, was resolved in May with iOS 12.3.
Last year, Natalie Silvanovich discovered another bug , this time in the WhatsApp app . The vulnerability allowed hackers to exploit the app on Android or iOS devices whenever users answered an incoming video call .
This isn't the first time Project Zero has discovered such flaws. In March, it uncovered a zero-day vulnerability in Apple's MacOS. In fact, the vulnerability had been discovered several months earlier, in November, but had not been patched until March.
