Windows Phone bug attacks messaging, reboots phone

Apple's iOS and Google's Android have previously experienced SMS-related bugs, and now Microsoft's Windows Phone is having its turn.

WinRumors reports that reader Klahed Salameh discovered a denial-of-service attack that causes the messaging function on Windows 7.5 devices to refuse to operate and the devices to reboot.

The site tested the attack on a variety of Android devices and found it doesn't discriminate, disabling messaging on the Samsung Focus Flash as easily as HTC's Titan. It also worked on devices running both the 7740 version of Windows 7.5 and the Mango RTM build 7720.

Not security related, according to the report, the bug is related to how Windows Phone handles messages, and can also be triggered when a user sends a Facebook chat message or message in Windows Live Messenger.

WinRumors writes:

If a user has pinned a friend as a live tile on their device and the friend posts a particular message on Facebook then the live tile will update and causes the device to lock up. Thankfully there�fs a workaround for the live tile issue; at initial boot up you have a small amount of time to get past the lock screen and into the home screen to remove the pinned live tile before it flips over and locks the device.

Salameh and WinRumors say they're working directly, and privately, with Microsoft to fix the problem, adding that for now the issue can be fixed by hard resetting and wiping the device.

Salameh Tweeted earlier today that "what causes the phone to crash is really interesting! Managed to find more details!" An hour later he added that iOS isn't vulnerable to the attack and, an hour after that, "Interesting! The text used to crash Windows Phone can also crash @Microsoft Visual Studio 2010, Expressions Blend, MS Help Viewer and others."

A video on the WinRumors site offers a demonstration of the attack.