With Apple introducing the iMessage service on OSX as well iOS and OSX users can communicate with each other using iMessage ID right from their Macbook, iMac, iPod Touch, iPhone and iPad. It is fairly easy to send a very large message with help of any of these devices but hackers recently found an easier method to automate the process with a simple script and fill up users inbox with very large messages, to an extent that it even crashes the Messages app on iPhone/iPod Touch and iPad. The attack, originating from a Twitter ID that sells UDIDs of Apple devices seems to have target many iOS developers who are well known, including iH8sn0w. They were bombarded with a series of thousands of message that their iPhone could not process and eventually crashed the Messages app.
Grant Paul share information that Apple basically does not limit the number of messages a user can send in a minute or in a certain time period, thus it is quite easy for hackers to create simple scripts that can flood the inbox of a user with tons on messages in no time. iH8sn0w even showcased a simple proof of concept where he crashes the Messages app on his device by sending a series of messages using a script. And what’s even worst is when the hacker create a large unicode based text message that is so huge to process that the Messages app will eventually crash unable to display the message and even force itself to close and stop working further as it will be unable to reopen.
The only effective work around for now seems to be disabling iMessage handle temporarily till Apple releases a fix.
Source: TheNextWeb