Recover from File : /// crash loop in OS X Messages - Mac OS X Hints

Recover from File : /// crash loop in OS X Messages - Mac OS X Hints
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20130204131658853

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This recently published "File : / / /" bug (see

this Macworld article for an explanation

) is a huge problem and can be seriously exploited to crash Mac apps, especially Messages. If someone sends you an iMessage (from an iOS device to Messages for Mac), Messages will continually crash, rendering it completely useless.

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This is a Warning

-

please DO NOT SEND

a message with that content over iMessage. I

do not

suggest you test this bug. However, despite these warnings, trolling people will still send it to crash their friend's message machines.

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Below are three fixes to make iMessage workable again:

FIRST (and easiest)

: Send 30-40 (lines of) iMessages back to the sender. The idea here is to lengthen the iMessage log so that the File : / / / message is not loaded when Messages starts up. You can either send these from an iOS device or from a Share button, such as the one in Safari. Continue trying until you can open iMessage again. Then, delete the conversation with Command+Delete.

SECOND: Remove the "chat.db" message database from ~/Library/Messages. This will remove all Messages conversations.

THIRD: Edit "chat.db" to delete the offending message. You will need to do this with an sqlite editor not subject to the crash (most that I tried do not crash). The message will be found in the "messages" table.

[kirkmc adds: This is, indeed, a serious bug, and it's quite simple to send a denial of service attack to someone using Messages. As the poster said, do not try this juts for fun. You may want to try it in other apps just to see that the crash does, indeed, occur, but at your risk and peril. It's really quite surprising that a bug of this nature got through Apple's QA…]

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(via Instapaper)

Brief message sent from a handheld device.