Vulnerability in WebKit Crashes and Restarts iPhones and iPads (zdnet.com)

Posted by msmash on Sunday September 16, 2018 @11:10AM from the you-have-been-warned dept.

Catalin Cimpanu, writing for ZDNet: A security researcher has discovered a vulnerability in the WebKit rendering engine used by Safari that crashes and restarts the iOS devices -- iPhones and iPads. The vulnerability can be exploited by loading an HTML page that uses specially crafted CSS code. The CSS code isn't very complex and tries to apply a CSS effect known as backdrop-filter to a series of nested page segments (DIVs). Backdrop-filter is a relative new CSS property and works by blurring or color shifting to the area behind an element. This is a heavy processing task, and some software engineers and web developers have speculated that the rendering of this effect takes a toll on iOS' graphics processing library, eventually leading to a crash of the mobile OS altogether.

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Re: quality software apple by Anonymous Coward · 2018-09-16 16:19 · Score: 2, Informative

Doesn't actually crash or reboot iOS. It just looks like it while it reloads the graphic system. Comes back way too fast to be a restart, all apps still running, all Safari tabs saved except the offending tab, phone doesn't say it was restarted on the lock screen like it does after a restart.
Tested on iPhone 5c, iOS 10.3.3.