Another new Unicode text bug discovered affecting iOS Messages

The iPhone is prone to another Unicode text bug, being dubbed the “black dot” bug. Outlined in a new video by EverythingApplePro (via 9to5Mac), the bug was first discovered on WhatsApp on Android, although it affects several other platforms as well, including the iOS Messages app. The bug was originally spread with the “black dot” emoji, but actually relies on the crafting of Unicode text strings that contain thousands of invisible Unicode characters that cause the receiving device to churn through CPU cycles in an attempt to process them, and such a string received as an iMessage will cause the recipient’s Messages app to repeatedly crash, much like other special-text bugs recently encountered.
As 9to5Mac notes, this flaw is not in any way isolated to iOS devices, and appears to cause issues even with Macs, and it likely exists in watchOS and tvOS too. The issue reportedly affects both iOS 11.3 and the current iOS 11.4 betas, although Apple is likely already working on a fix now that the issue has been made public.