Malicious video links are crashing iPhones

A malicious video with a tendency to crash iPhones is making the rounds. The video typically originates from vk-dot-com and testtrial-site90-dot-net domain names, and will lock up the iPhone watching it after about 10 seconds of playback time.

If you've been affected by the video, you can get your device up and running again by holding down the power button and home button to perform a hard reset.

In addition to avoiding links to vk-dot-com and testtrial-site90-dot-net, it’s probably best to ignore links made using URL shorteners (such as bit.ly) for the time being as well, at least if they're coming from people you don't know, or friends who have a tendency to try and prank you. Messaging apps like WhatsApp can however auto-play the video in conversation view.

The exploit relates to a memory leak caused by playing back corrupted data encoded in the video.

It doesn't seem like the video causes any long term damage to your iPhone or pose any security risk, but having your device randomly lock up on you isn't exactly fun either.

It's worth noting that links to reputable video sharing sites such YouTube and Vimeo are safe; these sites will strip out the malicious content that causes an iPhone to freeze when re-encoding the video.

We're expecting that Apple will address this bug in a future iOS software update.

Alex Choros

Managing Editor + Group Telco Editor | X | Instagram | Threads | LinkedIn

Alex Choros is the Managing Editor of WhistleOut Australia and an award-winning journalist. He's been writing about consumer technology for over a decade and is an expert on the Australian telco sector, to the point where he knows far too many phone and internet plans by heart. In addition to leading the WhistleOut editorial team, Alex is responsible for ruining the office Sonos with his troubled taste in music.

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