libicu

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What is an icebox?

A page for drafts once present in my sandbox, which I have since suspended. Either the idea is not quite developed enough, there's some fatal flaw, I hit a roadblock, or I just have decided I'm not going to work on it.

Essentially, the stuff in here is on indefinite hold. If there's something in here you'd like to adopt, send me a PM and we'll figure something out.

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Item #: SCP-3490-EX

Object Class: Explained

Special Containment Procedures: Mobile Task Force Mu-4 ("Debuggers") is to provide patches for all major software projects affected by SCP-3490-EX through front organization Secure Cloud Products. Personnel are advised to be cautious when handling SCP-3490-EX on unpatched systems.

Description: Pending rewrite, see below for original SCP file.

▸ Open Attachment: SCP-3490

Item #: SCP-3490

Object Class: Keter

Special Containment Procedures: All recovered SCP-3490 strings are to be kept in anomalous digital storage, accessible by Level-2 memetics or technical engineers. Any testing must be conducted on TEMPEST-certified computers. Provisional bot I/O SELENIUM has been tasked with finding, logging, and removing SCP-3490-positive strings.

Description: SCP-3490 is a collection of visual anomalies generated by valid UTF-8¹ character sequences, which have been designated as Unicode-class cognitohazards. These strings are generally 6-29 bytes in length. When they appear in certain display environments,² anomalous visual distortions result.

D-class testing has shown that the effect is initially hypnotic and lurid; as exposure continues, they experience cluster headaches, nausea, and (in rare cases) seizures. The anomaly is composed of a repeated visual pattern, and even small regions can exhibit the cognitohazard's full effects.

The anomaly was first discovered by Junior Researcher Morrison while browsing the content aggregator site Reddit. Security personnel found Morrison convulsing on the ground with their mobile device open to the offending post. A visual cognitohazard containment team was deployed, and Morrison was hospitalized. The SCP-3490-positive text was identified and taken down, and study of its anomalous properties began. I/O BINARY SEARCH was tasked with finding and removing similar instances until a more specific bot could be created.

Use of electronic anomaly detection tools on SCP-3490 strings flagged several instances of memory corruption. Compared debugger output on an anomaly testing computer of two strings (one control, one anomalous) identified a flaw within libicu³ as the origin of the visual effects. Investigation into how a non-anomalous software bug could create cognitohazardous effects is ongoing.

MTF-Mu-4 is currently introducing the fix to the library's upstream source code.

Addendum 3490-1: Study of SCP-3490 Variants

Analysis of the defect lead to the discovery of several additional character sequences which produce Unicode-class cognitohazards. All known variants are listed below. (Note that here "X" is a wildcard, thus, U+100X would refer to any character between U+1000 and U+100F)

• U+032A or U+0346, U+███ or U+030█, U+██AX
• U+████ or any non-ASCII upper-case character, U+0347 or U+0349, U+03█E
• U+████, U+1D██ or U+1D██ or U+1DX█, U+████ or a currency symbol, U+█████ or U+████3
• Any U+1FXXX character,⁴ followed by at least 16 instances of U+█████ characters. The original SCP-3490 string followed this pattern.

Three D-class (D-81904, D-41562, and D-07128) with technical training were requisitioned. In a controlled Class-III electro-cognitohazard testing environment, the new SCP-3490 instances were viewed, revealing no additional anomalous properties. Medical inspections of the subjects suggested that the symptoms present were very similar to those occurring from exposure to rapidly flashing lights.

During his treatment, it was discovered that Junior Researcher Morrison had previously undiagnosed epilepsy. Reclassification to Explained pending.

Footnotes

1. Commonly used encoding scheme for international character sets.

2. Generally web browsers, but some text editors are also affected. For a full list, see Document 3490-39.

3. A software library released by the International Components for Unicode, which is widely used to handle text encoding.

4. The "miscellaneous symbols and pictographs" Unicode block, most notable for containing emoji.