Your iPhone isn’t safe from these four characters

A newly-discovered bug is causing iPhones to crash when users type in a particular string of characters. The bug, highlighted by a security researcher on Mastodon, can be triggered by typing “”:: in Spotlight search and the App Library and Settings search bar.

Typing these characters in Spotlight search or App Library search crashes the user interface and causes the phone to show the lock screen. In some cases, triggering the bug shows a black screen for a moment.