A prank site is causing havoc on the Internet. The URL- crashsafai.com (do not follow) is coded with a small JavaScript which exploits web-browsers’ history feature to fill the history with thousands of entries. Overloaded with a large number of history entries, the browser crashes immediately.
According to earlier reports, crashsafari(dot)com caused Safari on an iPhone to crash. Even worst, it caused an iPhone to overheat and reboot. The site however, causes crash on desktop browsers as well.
In my multiple tests, I’ve experienced crashsafari crashing Chrome and Firefox browser on a Windows PC. When Firefox prompts of an ‘unresponsive script’, clicking Stop script stops the script from executing further. Upon clicking Debug script, it caused my PC to become unresponsive and I had to forcefully reboot it.
Other than causing a browser crash, the URL is not designed to install any malware on a device.
Crashsafari URL being spread all over the Web by pranksters, JFF!
As usual, pranksters are taking over the Internet to direct unaware users to crashsafari and freaking them out. Even worse, the links are being spread via URL shorteners which makes the detection impossible. Twitter has come forward to lend a helping hand in this havoc and blocked direct links to crashsafari.com by showing a “potentially harmful” message.
Matthew Bryant, the 22-year old creator of Crashsafari
According to Wired, the prank site was created by Matthew Bryant, a 22-year-old working in application security in San Francisco. According to Matthew who discovered the bug by testing ‘how browsers will handle odd code that gets thrown at them’ in his spare time, the site is created as “purely as a joke.”
A similar website crashchrome.com also exists, which performs same as crashsafari.com. Both domains were registered on 29th April, 2015.
If you want to experience what happens upon clicking these links, go ahead and click. If you’re on a cellphone, it might get rebooted and on a desktop, your browser may be “hanged to death!”
If you don’t want to experience, refrain from following a short URL sent by friends just for fun and unknown users on the Web.
What was your experience with crashsafari? Did you click/follow the link? Do share your experience.
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