Don't say "Reboot": Android OS executes every word you type

Posted by John Brownlee, November 10, 2008 10:25 AM | permalink

In what may possibly be the most bizarre bugs to ever ship, Google's Android OS attempts to carry out every single word you type as a command:

When I first read this I didn’t believe it. Then I read it again, and again, and finally tried it for myself. It’s true. Don’t believe me? Save anything you’re working on (this will reboot your phone!), open the keyboard tray on your G1, ignore anything you see on the screen, and type these 8 keystrokes: -r-e-b-o-o-t-. Poof, your phone will reboot. This only works on a real phone, not in the emulator, and only with firmware version 1.0 TC4-RC29 and earlier.

Google's already issued a fix, but this is a fun one. Unfortunately, "Marilyn Monrobot Massage" is not a recognizable command on my G1.

Worst. Bug. Ever. [ZDNet]

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Discussion

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#1 posted by dculberson , November 10, 2008 11:33 AM

Amazing.

And, I'm still holding out for the Adrienne Barbeaubot. Blonds never were quite my thing. (Sorry, Joel.)

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#2 posted by Anonymous , November 10, 2008 11:34 AM

It says to type these 8 keystrokes ("reboot") but do you mean 6?

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#3 posted by bardfinn , November 10, 2008 12:00 PM

"Egg Freckles".

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#4 posted by Harrkev

, November 10, 2008 12:14 PM

People who have an Android phone: google "rm -rf /*". Lots of pages on that subject.

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#5 posted by nprnncbl , November 10, 2008 12:26 PM

Or how about a fake captcha? Type the text you see in the box...

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#6 posted by cayton , November 10, 2008 12:27 PM

#3: That's cold-blooded.

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#7 posted by A New Challenger

, November 10, 2008 12:34 PM

DON'T DATE ROBOTS!

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#8 posted by pauldrye , November 10, 2008 12:54 PM

Who said anything about DATING?

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#9 posted by Nelson.C , November 10, 2008 1:17 PM

#3: But don't do it on an unfixed Android phone, is the bit I think you forgot to add.

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#10 posted by Tubman , November 10, 2008 2:00 PM

John, that's nothing: try typing b-r-i-c-k.

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#11 posted by toaste , November 10, 2008 3:28 PM

Open source, remember? A patch is already out and this has already been fixed.

Fixed as of update RC29. The latest over-the-air update is R30.

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#12 posted by hectorinwa , November 10, 2008 4:19 PM

It only worked with [return]reboot[return] No other commands worked. I don't think it really had root, so the rm -rf /* wouldn't have worked. (not that I had the guts to try) It was fixed before it was discovered though. The r30 update was making it's rounds before anyone mentioned this.

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#13 posted by mdh , November 10, 2008 9:21 PM

#3: That's cold-blooded.

and disemvowel-resistant too.