Web link causes Safari crashes, device reboots on iOS and Mac [u]

A website in circulation as a prank on Safari users is causing the Mac edition of the browser to crash, and iPhones and iPads to reboot, reports said on Monday.

Aptly named crashsafari.co, the site deliberately overwhelms the browser with a self-generating text string in the address bar, according to The Guardian. This can not only force iOS devices to reboot, but lead them to heat up beforehand as their processors struggle to keep up.

Using Google's Chrome browser to visit the site will reportedly avoid crashes or reboots, whether on Android, Mac, or Windows, but still result in serious slowdowns, as well as overheating on Android devices.

The problem is being exacerbated by the use of link shortening services, which can disguise the link.

The site so far appears to be a gag instead of malicious. Other forms of crash-generating code can sometimes by used by hackers as a way of hijacking a device.

Apple devices recovering from a crash or reboot will reportedly function as normal.

Update: According to a follow-up report from iMore, Apple is aware of the crash issue and is looking into a fix.

19 Comments

aaron sorenson 35 comments · 18 Years

About 8 years ago

Funny they make a site to specially mess with Safari because about 2/3 of any site on the net will crash IE.

thewhitefalcon 4444 comments · 10 Years

Safari has backend changes in iOS 9.3 and OS X 10.11.4. Visiting the site on 9.3 just makes Safari pause, then kick back to Springboard. Reload Safari and the tab just shows your favorites.

maciekskontakt 1168 comments · 15 Years

And so the fix will be to ban the website and report it? I wonder.

aaron sorenson said:

Funny they make a site to specially mess with Safari because about 2/3 of any site on the net will crash IE.

That's not the war of browsers, but the fact that not well thought features end-up in risks. Do not assume that all people are friendly and one could get compacent. Yes IE has issues so does Google (perhaps even security and that's why some compenies do not allow use of Chrome). All of them have some issues so exposing them is helping to improve. One cannot afford to be as arrogant as Microsoft with IE anymore (like 10-15 years ago). Time to react to exposing failures of ideas and implementations and I bet Apple will take care of this issue.

macky the macky 4801 comments · 15 Years

AppleInsider said:

A website in circulation as a prank on Safari users is causing the Mac edition of the browser to crash, and iPhones and iPads to reboot, reports said on Monday.

Other forms of crash-generating code can sometimes by used by hackers as a way of hijacking a device.
I think you should show us that code too...