SMS of Death: is your phone at risk, and how to back up your data

Updated: November 2026

In November 2026 researchers published a flaw in Android (CVE-2026-58882). One specially crafted text message, which you don't even have to open, can crash the phone's calling service: calls drop, even emergency calls, and repeated messages can keep the phone restarting. Sometimes only a factory reset gets it working again, and that deletes everything that isn't backed up.

Is your phone at risk?

1. Open Settings → About phone (on some phones Settings → System → About phone).
2. Look at the Android version and at the Android security update (also called security patch level).

• Android 14 or newer, security update from October 2026 or later: Google's fix should be in. Keep installing updates as they come.
• Android 14 or newer, older security update: Install the update now: Settings → System → Software update (Samsung: Settings → Software update; Xiaomi: Settings → About phone → HyperOS / MIUI version).
• Android 12 or 13: Google has released no fix for these versions. Back up your data now (below), so a reset can't cost you anything.
• Older than Android 12: Reports don't list it as affected, but these phones no longer get security fixes at all. A backup is a good idea anyway.

No app can block this message, KeepCallsSafe included: it breaks inside Android itself before any app sees it. Be careful with apps that promise otherwise. Only the system update fixes it.

How to back up your phone, and where

Best: in your Google account (free, 15 GB) plus a copy of your photos on a computer or an external drive. Two copies in two places, so losing one never costs you anything.

1. Whole phone: Settings → Google → Backup (on some phones Settings → System → Backup), turn on Backup by Google One and tap Back up now. It saves apps, contacts, call history, text messages and settings.
2. Photos and videos: open Google Photos, tap your profile picture and turn on Backup. The free 15 GB is shared with Gmail and Drive; if it runs out, copy the DCIM folder to a computer over a USB cable.
3. Contacts: check that they are saved in your Google account, not only on the phone or the SIM card. In the Contacts app, tap a contact: it should show your Google account.
4. WhatsApp: WhatsApp → Settings → Chats → Chat backup → Back up. Signal, Viber and other messengers have their own backup in their settings.
5. Samsung, Xiaomi and others: their own cloud (Samsung Cloud, Smart Switch, Xiaomi Cloud) works too, but the Google backup is enough for most people.
6. Check it: on a computer, open contacts.google.com and photos.google.com. You should see your contacts and photos there.

If the phone keeps restarting

If the phone is already restarting: turn on airplane mode so no new messages arrive, then turn Wi-Fi back on. If the phone stays on long enough, back up over Wi-Fi straight away.

Experienced users can delete the message from a computer with ADB. Otherwise a factory reset helps: turn the phone off, hold the power and volume-up buttons until the recovery menu appears (the combination differs by phone) and choose Wipe data / Factory reset. Then sign in with the same Google account and restore your backup.

KeepCallsSafe blocks hidden, international and spam calls on Android. It can't stop this message, but it keeps your calls safe from the rest. KeepCallsSafe