Apple’s latest security flaw is a ‘text bomb’

Sergii Kharchenko | NurPhoto | Getty Images

Official iPhone X release in Kyiv, Ukraine on December 12, 2017.

A newly discovered security flaw is affecting Apple’s iPhone and Mac computers.

Software developer Abraham Masri claimed to have found the bug, called “chaiOS,” and posted it on programming site GitHub on Tuesday afternoon. The so-called “text bomb” typically causes an iPhone to crash and, in some cases, restart.

Sending a message which contains the link to Masri’s code would be all it takes to activate the bug — even if the recipient did not click on the link. Meanwhile, on a Mac computer, the security flaw was found to crash the Safari browser, as well as causing other slowdowns.

Masri said he “always” reported bugs to the tech-giant before releasing them. Apple was not immediately available for comment when contacted by CNBC.

Shortly after the tweet was shared on social media, Masri removed the link from GitHub.

“I’m not going to re-upload it … I made my point. Apple needs to take such bugs more seriously,” he said on Twitter.