• Home
  • Cyber Crime
  • Cyber warfare
  • APT
  • Data Breach
  • Deep Web
  • Digital ID
  • Hacking
  • Hacktivism
  • Intelligence
  • Internet of Things
  • Laws and regulations
  • Malware
  • Mobile
  • Reports
  • Security
  • Social Networks
  • Terrorism
  • ICS-SCADA
  • POLICIES
  • Contact me
MUST READ

Taiwan Web Infrastructure targeted by APT UAT-7237 with custom toolset

 | 

New NFC-Driven Android Trojan PhantomCard targets Brazilian bank customers

 | 

Cisco fixed maximum-severity security flaw in Secure Firewall Management Center

 | 

'Blue Locker' Ransomware Targeting Oil & Gas Sector in Pakistan

 | 

Hackers exploit Microsoft flaw to breach Canada ’s House of Commons

 | 

Norway confirms dam intrusion by Pro-Russian hackers

 | 

Zoom patches critical Windows flaw allowing privilege escalation

 | 

Manpower data breach impacted 144,180 individuals

 | 

U.S. CISA adds Microsoft Internet Explorer, Microsoft Office Excel, and WinRAR flaws to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog

 | 

Critical FortiSIEM flaw under active exploitation, Fortinet warns

 | 

Charon Ransomware targets Middle East with APT attack methods

 | 

Hackers leak 2.8M sensitive records from Allianz Life in Salesforce data breach

 | 

SAP fixed 26 flaws in August 2025 Update, including 4 Critical

 | 

August 2025 Patch Tuesday fixes a Windows Kerberos Zero-Day

 | 

Dutch NCSC: Citrix NetScaler zero-day breaches critical orgs

 | 

Chrome sandbox escape nets security researcher $250,000 reward

 | 

Smart Buses flaws expose vehicles to tracking, control, and spying

 | 

MedusaLocker ransomware group is looking for pentesters

 | 

Google confirms Salesforce CRM breach, faces extortion threat

 | 

SECURITY AFFAIRS MALWARE NEWSLETTER ROUND 57

 | 
  • Home
  • Cyber Crime
  • Cyber warfare
  • APT
  • Data Breach
  • Deep Web
  • Digital ID
  • Hacking
  • Hacktivism
  • Intelligence
  • Internet of Things
  • Laws and regulations
  • Malware
  • Mobile
  • Reports
  • Security
  • Social Networks
  • Terrorism
  • ICS-SCADA
  • POLICIES
  • Contact me
  • Home
  • Breaking News
  • Hacking
  • Italian researcher discovered that Gmail shutdown after sending a Zalgo text

Italian researcher discovered that Gmail shutdown after sending a Zalgo text

Pierluigi Paganini January 11, 2018

Researchers at security firm We Are Segment have discovered a vulnerability in Gmail, a “distorted” message shuts down the most famous webmail in the world.

This Cybersec company We Are Segment, part of the Interlogica group, discovered a severe vulnerability in Gmail.

Last month the Italian firm made the headlines due to the discovery of the Tormoil vulnerability.

The flaw in Gmail was discovered by the white hat hacker Roberto Bindi, the flaw could be exploited to shut down Gmail by sending to the victim a specially crafted message, impeding the user from accessing his/her email address.

“The test was born out of curiosity. Roberto wanted to see what would have happened if a Zalgo text was injected into a web browser.” reads the press release published by the company.

A Zalgo text is a type of text composed of characters and metacharacters (letters, numbers and other symbols) which extend sideways – above and under – the original text, thanks to the effect produced by the standard Unicode combiners.

The first experiment conducted by the expert demonstrated that the insertion of a Zalgo text (which can also be generated by web applications) containing a great number of metacharacters (more than 1.000.000) triggered the browser crash, namely, the web browser shut down for a few minutes. gmail

Despite the already interesting results, Roberto Bindi didn’t stop there, he decided to send a Zalgo text via Gmail again, expecting another browser crash. Unfortunately, he couldn’t even imagine what kind of results this test would reveal.

What he managed to discover surpassed his imagination: it wasn’t the browser crashing; instead, it was Gmail itself.
The email is effectively received by the recipient, but he cannot open it and, after just a few moments, Gmail shuts down showing the “Error 500” message (internal server failure due to unspecified reasons, like an irreversible code error).

The young researcher managed to find a technical artifice to bypass the block and reactivate the email account, in order to repeat the experiment and verify the duration of the Gmail shutdown. He discovered that the account went down for 4 entire days.

Since this discovery, Roberto decided to contact the Google’s team. After a few weeks, the team communicated that they had begun working on the issue.

“After discovering that by sending a series of special characters the Google’s mail system stopped working, I started worrying about the possible consequences and damages that this vulnerability might have caused when publicized. An ill-intentioned person might have blocked email accounts like “purchases@…” or other work emails, by sending a simple email.” explained Roberto Bindi.
“That’s why my company decided to publish this piece of information only after the issue had been solved by Google. Our choice was based on ethics and it mirrors our company’s ethics code, underlining how WeAreSegment is formed by ethical
hackers”

This Gmail vulnerability discovered by the researcher Roberto Bindi demonstrates how research is one of the most important aspects of cyber security.

“Thanks to this activity, we can directly contribute to the Cyber Security improvement worldwide” – says Filippo Cavallarin, We Are Segment CEO.

[adrotate banner=”9″] [adrotate banner=”12″]

Pierluigi Paganini

(Security Affairs –  Gmail, hacking)

[adrotate banner=”5″]

[adrotate banner=”13″]


facebook linkedin twitter

Gmail Hacking Zalgo text

you might also like

Pierluigi Paganini August 17, 2025
Colt Technology faces multi-day outage after WarLock ransomware attack
Read more
Pierluigi Paganini August 17, 2025
SECURITY AFFAIRS MALWARE NEWSLETTER ROUND 58
Read more

leave a comment

newsletter

Subscribe to my email list and stay
up-to-date!

    recent articles

    Taiwan Web Infrastructure targeted by APT UAT-7237 with custom toolset

    APT / August 16, 2025

    New NFC-Driven Android Trojan PhantomCard targets Brazilian bank customers

    Malware / August 15, 2025

    Cisco fixed maximum-severity security flaw in Secure Firewall Management Center

    Security / August 15, 2025

    'Blue Locker' Ransomware Targeting Oil & Gas Sector in Pakistan

    Malware / August 15, 2025

    Hackers exploit Microsoft flaw to breach Canada ’s House of Commons

    Hacking / August 15, 2025

    To contact me write an email to:

    Pierluigi Paganini :
    pierluigi.paganini@securityaffairs.co

    LEARN MORE

    QUICK LINKS

    • Home
    • Cyber Crime
    • Cyber warfare
    • APT
    • Data Breach
    • Deep Web
    • Digital ID
    • Hacking
    • Hacktivism
    • Intelligence
    • Internet of Things
    • Laws and regulations
    • Malware
    • Mobile
    • Reports
    • Security
    • Social Networks
    • Terrorism
    • ICS-SCADA
    • POLICIES
    • Contact me

    Copyright@securityaffairs 2024

    We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept All”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. However, you may visit "Cookie Settings" to provide a controlled consent.
    Cookie SettingsAccept All
    Manage consent

    Privacy Overview

    This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities...
    Necessary
    Always Enabled
    Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
    Non-necessary
    Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
    SAVE & ACCEPT