Could you be its next victim? It's surprisingly straightforward.
A word to the wise for people who use an iPhone: a website circulating on Twitter could crash your device.
It’s called crashsafari.com, and it will result in your iPhone’s browser being crashed, or perhaps even the device itself, according to a Huffington Post report.
The report found that the site is capable of crashing iPhone 6S and 5S models running iOS version 9.21, and an iPhone 6 with version 9.2, so anything recent appears to be vulnerable.
Clicking on the website causes it to load briefly before potentially causing a full reboot of your iPhone — although fortunately, it doesn’t appear to actually cause damage to your iPhone.
Basically, the site works by using JavaScript to create a loop with the History API, which makes it an annoying but not malicious site, nor is it one that steals your personal information.
It appears that it does also appear to work on other operating systems. The report noted that on a Samsung S6 Android phone using the Chrome browser, while it didn’t crash the phone, it did result in the app freezing, but the app can be closed easily.
What’s the point of the website? People have been basically using it as a prank, even using a link shortener to obscure its name in an attempt to trick people into causing an unwanted phone reboot.
Apple’s Safari website claims that it protects users from harmful websites, but apparently not this one.
“Safari helps protect you against fraudulent Internet sites and those that harbor malware — before you visit them,” the site states. “If a website looks suspicious, Safari prevents it from loading and warns you.”
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