On Friday, The Next Web reported that a group of iOS developers were experiencing rapid-fire texts over iMessage, causing bothersome and repetitious messages and notifications. The prank wasn't serious on the level of, say, a full-scale DDoS of a bank website, and concern over spam via iMessage is not new either. But the unwanted messages were fresh proof of some problems with the iMessage app—specifically the lack of good spam-detection or a way for users to block a message sender.
One of the recipients of the spam, an iOS jailbreak tool and app developer who goes by the moniker iH8sn0w, informed The Next Web of the prank when it happened. iH8sn0w told Ars over Twitter that he simply disabled the handle that was getting flooded. “It's just a bunch of kids bored playing with AppleScript,” he said.
Another app and extension developer for iOS devices, Grant Paul, revealed on Twitter that he was getting spammed with very large messages causing his iMessage app to crash. “The iMessage spammer has now completely locked me out of my iOS Messages app, by sending long strings of Unicode chars. Definitely a DoS,” Paul wrote on his Twitter account. Ars reached out to Paul but has not yet heard back from him.
The Next Web was able to verify that the prank was happening to at least six iOS developers.
After being inundated with messages, iH8sn0w developed a proof-of-concept AppleScript that sends recurring messages via the OS X Messages app, forcing the recipient to constantly delete or hide messages that are from unwanted senders. Apple does not appear to limit the number of messages that can be sent in an amount of time, nor does iMessage allow users to block specific senders. There is a chance, however, that Apple may block obviously egregious uses of the iMessage app if it notices them.
The Next Web points out that because iOS 6 unifies users' phone numbers and e-mail addresses, it seems relatively trivial to spam someone in this fashion if his or her e-mail address can be found online.
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