Softpedia >News >Mobile World
Softpedia Homepage   

A Single Message Can Crash WhatsApp on Android and Even Freeze the Device

No workaround available as patch still nowhere to be seen

May 7, 2018 07:04 GMT  ·  By
WhatsApp for Android
   WhatsApp for Android

iPhones have long been the only ones affected by message bugs that caused apps to crash and devices to freeze completely, but it looks like Android smartphones aren’t immune either.

An issue discovered in WhatsApp for Android can lead not only to the app to crash when receiving a crafted message, but the entire device to go crazy and eventually freeze to the point where a reboot is the only way to get it back in working conditions.

And if the same message is received over and over again, it’s not hard to figure out what can happen, as WhatsApp (and possibly the device) could technically be forced into an infinite crashing loop.

The bug explained

There are two different messages spreading across the web right now and which trigger the bug, though it’s worth knowing that pretty much any text can be crafted in order to cause WhatsApp on Android to crash. But if you receive a message in the form of the following two…


“This is very Interesting! šŸ˜‚”
“If you touch this black dot then your WhatsApp will hang.”
 … you better delete the conversation if that’s still possible. There’s a technical explanation for the bug and it all comes down to invisible Unicode characters that are included in the message.

In the first example, there are no less than 6000 invisible characters between the smiley face and the quotation mark, as well as codes that instruct the app to read the message from left to right, and then from right to left, and then from left to right all over again. This way WhatsApp struggles to read the message and eventually hangs, potentially leading to more issues.

The 6000-character mark is being used because this is the limit that WhatsApp implemented to display a read more button next to each message and generates increased memory usage when tapped.

No workaround is available at this point and a patch is the only way to address this, though WhatsApp hasn’t said a single thing about it until now.

In case you’re looking to test the bug yourselves (for experimental purposes only!) here’s the Pastebin link that’s making the rounds right now. You need to copy the entire message, including the quotes. Be aware that the message also causes some desktop browsers to hang in WhatsApp Web. iPhones aren't affected by the bug.

Play Video