Prior to reading this blog, I would like to explain what bricking your smartphone means. Usually any problem in our smartphone is tend to be solved on restarting the device but when your device is bricked, you can’t do anything to fix it. It just won’t open, neither format or anything. But this is the case of hard bricking. The one which we are talking about is soft bricking which will mess with your head a lot but will eventually get fixed by Factory Data Reset.
Now, the main content.
Recently, a new malware has surfaced over the internet, now in the form of a Image. The aesthetically beautiful image of a lake with a soothing background may seem pleasing but once you set it on your wallpaper, it will run an infinite loop of restarts and then BOOM! The device is bricked.
The only solution left with you is to Factory Data Reset, which will wipe all your data. The malware hit multiple devices ranging from Samsung to Pixel(working on Android 10).
So what really is causing this image to be this destructive? The answer lies in the build of this image. Nowadays, the images are a lot complex than what they used to be in the past. The device must differentiate among various colors to render the image perfectly.
The image uses Metadata and Color Gamut, which creates a overflow in device. To overcome this overflow, the device initiates a fail safe mechanism and restarts. But, restarting doesn’t solve the problem this time and the device keeps on restarting again and again eventually booting into recovery mode for Factory Data Reset.
So, if you wish to keep your device and data, don’t try to change your wallpaper from image source unknown. Stay Safe. Stay Alert.
Getting through it. TechX 