A newly-discovered glitch in software can cause iPhones to mysteriously shut down when they receive a certain text message.
says it's aware of the problem and is working on a fix. But some pranksters are sharing information about the glitch on social media and using it to crash other peoples' phones.
The problem only occurs when the iPhone receives a message with a specific string of characters, including some Arabic characters, according to several tech blogs. When an iPhone isn't being used, it typically shows a shortened version of the message on the phone's lock screen. That shortened combination of characters apparently triggers the crash.