
New CSS Attack Restarts an iPhone or Freezes a Mac - extarial
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/new-css-attack-restarts-an-iphone-or-freezes-a-mac/
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miles
> _Haddouche has told BleepingComputer that he has created an additional
> attack using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript that will totally freeze macOS
> computers, but has not released it as it persists after reboot and
> essentially bricks the computer._

That sounds like a far cry from "bricking" the computer. Deleting the
offending files (or just clearing the browser cache altogether) can be
accomplished in a number of fairly trivial ways: booting into Recovery Mode or
single user mode, booting from an external drive, booting into Target Disk
Mode and connecting to a second Mac, etc.

On a related note, iMac Pro and 2018 MacBook Pro users should be aware of:

Things that may "brick" your 2018 MacBook Pro
[https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/things-that-may-
brick-y...](https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/things-that-may-brick-
your-2018-macbook-pro.2128945/)

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rajacombinator
Sounds pretty close to bricking for the vast majority of Mac users though.
Typical user won’t be able to solve it and good luck getting help at the Apple
Store.

~~~
extra88
When macOS crashes, it gives you the choice to not reopen the applications on
login. I think Apple Support will regularly talk users through booting in Safe
Mode [0] which is more dramatic but would also prevent the malicious content
from reloading.

[0] [https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201262](https://support.apple.com/en-
us/HT201262)

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userbinator
I believe this can be summed up as "GPU acceleration pokes hole in process
isolation", causing what would normally just be a browser crash/freeze due to
running out of memory to take down the whole system.

