A french blogger has discovered a new bug that is affecting quite some Mediatek based phones and could be a potential security hole. If affected phones receive a SMS containing a “=”, they will shut down and reboot immediately.

French tech blog wiity.net has already begun creating a list of affected devices. So far it appears that quite some Wiko phones are affected by the problem, as well as the Fairphone and some phones from Acer and Alcatel’s OneTouch series. As Alcatel phones are made by Chinese phone maker TCL, it is likely that some TCL phones are affected as well.

This rather annoying issue doesn’t seem to be a threat by itself but could be used as a potential security hole if not patched correclty with firmware updates. Apparently using a third part SMS application fixes the issue. See the issue in action in the video below.

This is the second potential security issue to arise in the past week to do with Chinese made phones, however it doesn’t appear that anyone with either issue has been but at risk yet.

[SOURCE]