Man Warns Android Users Of Strange 'Malware' Wallpaper That's Crashing Mobile Devices
The user named Ice Universe said that it only happens on Samsung phones. Throughout his personal tests, it happened to a new Samsung mid-range smartphone but not the Galaxy Note8.
There's a new 'malware' that seems to freeze or completely crash an android device and it comes in the form of a picturesque wallpaper.
Twitter/@UniverseIce
A Twitter user shared the image of the wallpaper bug writing, "Never set this picture as wallpaper, especially for Samsung mobile phone users! It will cause your phone to crash! Don't try it! If someone sends you this picture, please ignore it."
WARNING£¡£¡£¡
¡ª Ice universe (@UniverseIce) May 31, 2020
Never set this picture as wallpaper, especially for Samsung mobile phone users!
It will cause your phone to crash!
Don't try it!
If someone sends you this picture, please ignore it. pic.twitter.com/rVbozJdhkL
The user named Ice Universe said that it only happens on Samsung phones. Throughout his personal tests, it happened to a new Samsung mid-range smartphone but not the Galaxy Note8.
This is not a joke, please do not try, I hope someone can understand its crash mechanism to avoid the harm of such wallpapers to the phone. Please developers to study it, this is the original picture of the wallpaper:https://t.co/qPBv9iE56t
¡ª Ice universe (@UniverseIce) May 31, 2020
"When I tried to upload the original image (left) to Weibo, I found that its colour to change (right). At this time, the image became harmless, but when uploaded to twitter, the original image still does not change colour, still harmful. So I suspect it may be related to colour gamut," wrote Ice Universe.
According to him and few other people who tested it out say that the wallpaper prevents the phone from entering into the lock screen. Then, the phone enters a boot loop as a fail-safe mechanism, which just repeats the whole bootloop a few more times.
One user wrote, "Maan! WTF I tried it and it actually crashed my phone! I was almost gonna reset phone and was about to cry. But luckily I was quick enough to change some other wallpaper and it got fixed. Guys, please don't try using this Wallpaper on a Samsung phone. It crashes! I'm experienced !"
When I tried to upload the original image (left) to Weibo, I found that its color to change (right). At this time, the image became harmless, but when uploaded to twitter, the original image still does not change color, still harmful. So I suspect it may be related to color gamut pic.twitter.com/0A1PlUqlpv
¡ª Ice universe (@UniverseIce) May 31, 2020
Another user wrote, "So I drew one line through the image using PicsArt before making it as wallpaper & it didn't crash my phone . Maybe something is embedded in th code if the original file. Also, i Don't think screenshot will cause a crash . FYI i didn't try the original one."
@UniverseIce This is an android issue sadly is affecting also google pixels as well pic.twitter.com/HZTtogLfwB
¡ª Sebastian (@seb3153) May 31, 2020
According to some reports, the wallpaper is embedded with some specific codes to cause this issue. Opening up the image using a hex editor showed that it does have metadata stating ¡°Google Inc. 2016¡± and ¡°Google Skia¡±.
Back in 2018, a black dot message, was being circulated via message on WhatsApp causing the app and the user's smartphones to hang for a few seconds when clicked upon.
A message like the Black Dot, typically called message bombs contained hidden symbols between spaces that expand upon clicking. The expanded symbols overload the app, causing it to crash. Users who received the black dot message were advised to refrain clicking on the black dot.
