Fork bombing an android device?

[Thatdad]

Okay so I know you can fork bomb a computer. But can you fork bomb an android or any other smartphone?

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fork_bomb

Can you even run this code on a smartphone through a terminal?

 

[Thatdad]

Oh and please don't run the command on your primary device as this is a BAD command to run!

If it would work on a smartphone it would ruin it, so I hold no responsibility for anyone who runs it.

 

[Revenant Ghost]

If I still had my old LG Optimus V, I'd probably try it in order to satisfy my destructive nature.

 

[Thatdad]

If I still had my old LG Optimus V, I'd probably try it in order to satisfy my destructive nature.

Lol!

But I mean in theory it would brick it right?

I'm not sure what codes these phones allow/don't allow

 

[Thatdad]

Well hello there lol. Welcome to Android Forums!

Anyone got an Android that you are willing to destroy? lol

 

[9to5cynic]

I would think it would only crash the system... right ?

 

[mikedt]

This sounds a bit like a grey goo thing. Something is self-replicated and multiplies exponentially until it brings the whole show down.
Grey goo - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Has anyone played the on-line virtual world game Second Life? I did a little bit for a while.
Second Life Official Site - Virtual Worlds, Avatars, Free 3D Chat
There used to be an attack in that game, with self-replicating objects that would bring the whole system down. They actually called it a "grey goo attack". Fork bombing a system sounds very similar.

Don't think it would do any lasting damage to an Android device, not unless it was happening at the root/system level, and that can only happen on rooted devices. I guess a device would just become overloaded and crash or freeze, and a re-boot it would be back to normal.

 

[palmtree5]

I would think it would only crash the system... right ?

If it worked properly, it would just keep starting new processes until the system ran out of memory, at which point it would start crashing. This would (taking a guess here) probably cause the device to overheat and shut itself off. I do not believe it would brick a device.

FWIW, I tried this on my N7 (via terminal emulator) and it didn't work

 

[9to5cynic]

Yeah, I was thinking that the processes would eat up all the memory and then the system would crash or lockup. I can't imagine it would last past a reboot.

And palm, I'm glad you tried it - now I don't have to!

 

[Thatdad]

Thanks for attempting!

Would have been cool if it had worked lol

 

[nicandris]

well it works...
https://github.com/nicandris/com.example.forkbomb

 

[dan330]

crazy... why?? tell me why??

 

[Rukbat]

For the same reason we used to run a little (3 byte, IIRC) program on 8080 systems that would zero all of RAM except for a single set bit. Because it can be done.

 

[rotsopmi]

Tried it on a Note9 using Termux and my phone suddenly crashes and then reboots and then everything is back to normal.

 

[Bearsyzf]

pardon my ignorance but what is fork bombing ?

 

[Hadron]

There's a Wiki link in the first post

 

[Milo Willamson]

Oh wow that coding is almost child's play..