Windows Phone 7 Bug: Single Text Message Can Wreck The Phone

A bug has been discovered in Windows Phone 7 that causes the phone to reboot and breaks the messaging hub, all by sending a certain text message to the phone.

The flaw was discovered on Tuesday morning by Winrumors.com, which found that the bug affects a range of WP7 devices, including the HTC Titan and Samsung Focus Flash; upon receiving the message, the phones reboot and then the messaging app no longer works.

"The flaw works simply by sending an SMS to a Windows Phone user. Windows Phone 7.5 devices will reboot and the messaging hub will not open despite repeat attempts," Winrumors wrote.

Windows Phone isn't alone in having problems with certain text messages. When the iPhone was launched a specifically crafted text could be used to take over the device.

Until Microsoft releases a software update to fix the problem, the only solution is to perform a hard reset and restoring the phone to factory settings. The specific text message is not widely known - and Apple blog 9to5mac has redacted it - but host of Windows Phone Dev Podcast Ryan Lowdermilk tweeted: "Wow. This bug requires A LOT of characters. I would be rather surprised if anyone else figures it out."

Winrumors has recorded a short video, below, demonstrating the problem.