"SMS of death" "SMS crash bug"

[PAulyhoffman]

I have been dealing with a phone that continued to restart itself around the same time every day for over three weeks. Some days it would continue throughout the day even after flashing firmwares and repartitioning the phone. I returned the phone two times to have the same issue on the new ones. I thought it may be a battery issue so i bought new batteries. What i eventually discovered as the problem was an SMS that is being sent to my phone around the dame time everyday and then multiple times throughout the day.

I will add some links and code to the bottom of the post.

The SMS never makes it to my inbox nor does the phone notify me that i received it. It appears to be a code that is sent and a WAP that starts a chain of events leading my phone to die and restart. often times the phone is busy writing and interacting with the sd card while this is occurring and it causes errors on the phone that must be repaired by a flash of firmware. Now, if the text was sent while the phone is being flashed, as soon as the phone boots up it will crash again (sms received).

A friend helped my find in my logcat, the proof of this sms being sent and then the crash. from that point on i found the same sms followed by the crash in every instance.

My issue now is that i contacted my service provider and warned them of the issue to be told i need to change my # to being offered a much less "smart" smart phone. I have filed a bug report with google, and posted some proof asking for help in other forums. No one seems to take this seriously. I am hoping that i can get the attention of some developers in this forum who can help me get this bug noticed and maybe point me in the direction of someone who can assist me in finding someone who will take this seriously.

This bug or a similar bug was reported in 2009 and supposedly fixed with android 1.5

Here is a link about that bug

I am using a Samsung Captivate and apparently Samsung is prone to these attacks. I had to search hard to find one article about this bug.

SMS of death link

here is the bug taken from one of my logcats

02-15 11:03:33.079 D/Gsm/SmsMessage(5890) : SMS SC address: +16363848808
02-15 11:03:33.079 D/Gsm/SmsMessage(5890) : originatingAddress.address : 1111301000
02-15 11:03:33.086 D/Gsm/SmsMessage(5890) : SMS SC timestamp: 1297789271000
02-15 11:03:33.086 E/Gsm/SmsMessage(5890) : hasUserDataHeader : true
02-15 11:03:33.098 D/Gsm/SmsMessage(5890) : messageBody : ?application/vnd.omaloc-supl-init�칧-oma-application:ulp.ua�뜥큵�(��@�톻M&9�\0Pi�)MUA0갡븤狼�잟j
02-15 11:03:33.098 D/SMSDispatcher(5890) : New SMS Message Received
02-15 11:03:33.098 D/WAP PUSH(5890) : Rx: 01063f6170706c69636174696f6e2f766e642e6f6d616c6f632d7375706c2d696e697400af782d6f6d612d6170706c69636174696f6e3a756c702e7561008da8b484002801000040fd8d1010b78e4d261739e81b5c30506982294d554130814d958dd5c9941c9ff0046a
02-15 11:03:33.106 D/GpsLocationProvider(5822) : WAP_PUSH_RECEIVED_ACTION
02-15 11:03:33.106 D/GpsLocationProvider(5822) : checkWapSuplInit
02-15 11:03:33.141 D/GpsLocationProvider(5822) : WpaPush : 002801000040fd8d1010b78e4d261739e81b5c30506982294d554130814d958dd5c9941c9ff0046a
02-15 11:03:33.141 D/GpsLocationProvider(5822) : Hash : cf3bd733c0dd79a0
02-15 11:03:33.145 D/gps_BRCM(5822) : assist_ril_send_ni_message(sms_push_len : 40)
02-15 11:03:33.145 D/gps_BRCM(5822) : gps_set_gps_logging() gps_logging : 0
02-15 11:03:33.145 D/gps_BRCM(5822) : dynamic_acc_mode is 1
02-15 11:03:33.145 D/gps_BRCM(5822) : accuracy mask is 50
02-15 11:03:33.145 D/gps_BRCM(5822) : gps_load_configuration() completed.
02-15 11:03:33.145 D/gps_BRCM(5822) : get_set_id() ril.IMSI : <310410221988585>
02-15 11:03:33.145 W/gps_BRCM(5822) : Supl was not initialized
02-15 11:03:33.248 I/DEBUG (2585) : *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***
Skipped a lot of debug lines here you can find in this link
BTLIF_SUBSYSTEM_DETACHED
02-15 11:03:38.122 I/ServiceManager(2580) : service 'simphonebook' died
02-15 11:03:38.122 I/ServiceManager(2580) : service 'iphonesubinfo' died
02-15 11:03:38.122 I/ServiceManager(2580) : service 'phoneext' died
02-15 11:03:38.122 I/ServiceManager(2580) : service 'isms' died
02-15 11:03:38.122 I/ServiceManager(2580) : service 'phone' died
02-15 11:03:38.130 I/ServiceManager(2580) : service 'media.audio_flinger' died
02-15 11:03:38.130 I/ServiceManager(2580) : service 'media.player' died
02-15 11:03:38.130 I/ServiceManager(2580) : service 'media.camera' died
02-15 11:03:38.130 I/ServiceManager(2580) : service 'media.audio_policy' died
02-15 11:03:38.297 D/AndroidRuntime(6800) :
02-15 11:03:38.297 D/AndroidRuntime(6800) : >>>>>>>>>>>>>> AndroidRuntime START <<<<<<<<<<<<<<





I am also attaching a couple full logs for anyone to see
log. text is 11:08.44
android logs.txt is 11:22.28

While this bug may only be hitting a few people now i think it is important to get it noticed now so that fixes and pushed can be out. I know there were a lot of "bad batch" phones that suffered from "random shutdowns" with the captivate. I wonder if Samsung already knows about this bug and has not fixed it.

 

[Chris Kerrigan]

Moving this to the Captivate forum.

 

[PAulyhoffman]

Thanks, I really hope this IS indeed captivate specific. tomorrow i will have a motorla atrix running with the same number and sim card. I undoubtedly will receive the SMS and we will see if it crashes that phone too.

if this does indeed hit the new device i really hope i can find a forum to take this seriously.

 

[rahlquist]

What I find disturbing about this is how little attention its getting. The last time a SMS bug was found like this in 2009 it was a big deal now its like meh. It amounts to a repeatable DOS attack. At least on the captivate, I wish samsung really meant what they said about listening to users.

 

[anneoneamouse]

Go to the SMS application. Hit the far-left hard key, and select "settings". Adjust the limits for text and multimedia message there. Defaults are 200 texts, and 20 multimedia. You can also set an option to delete as you go.

If you receive lots of texts, low values here can cause all sorts of problems - I'm not sure if it'll help in this case, but it might.

Have you considered blocking the source number? Try under Settings > Calls > All Calls > Auto Reject

Hope this helps, consider pressing thanks if it does.

AoN

 

[PAulyhoffman]

Thanks, I don't actually receive it and the number is a short code so blocking is not possible. Actually google codes the os do that blocking isnt actually totally possible. The message must enter the phone and that is when it crashes.