AirDrop cracked by China, revealing phone number & email

The Beijing institute developed the technique to crack an iPhone’s encrypted device log to identify the numbers and emails of senders who share AirDrop content, the city’s judicial bureau said in an online post. Police have identified multiple suspects via that method, the agency said, without disclosing if anyone was arrested. “It improves the efficiency and accuracy of case-solving and prevents the spread of inappropriate remarks as well as potential bad influences,” the bureau said.

Further read: sfj.beijing.gov.cn/sfj/sfdt/ywdt82/…/index.html

kworpy,

You guys are gullible as shit if you think this is real. This is yet another bullshit scare tactic by the Chinese government. Also these articles are hardly even sourced and are just copypasted from other news sites to farm clicks.

possiblylinux127,

Yeah this does smell fishy. The Chinese government is quick to manipulate and lie and I doubt they would want to get people not to use a service they can break.

WebTheWitted,

Ahh, that makes sense. I was wondering, “Why the hell are they announcing their zero day to the Internet?”

southernwolf,
@southernwolf@pawb.social avatar

While I have little respect for Apple’s overall privacy practices, this sounds a lot like the CCP making something up to scare protesters and dissidents from using AirDrop. There’s no sensible reason they would be advertising such an exploit openly, especially when it could potentially be used to secretly spy on dissidents, protesters, or even used in foreign espionage. Something doesn’t sit right with this.

BearOfaTime,

Well if Apple doesn’t fix it, like they haven’t fixed the iMessage flaws) they’ve known about for years, then it’s still useful.

And most people won’t even know of this issue, and they’d still use Airdrop anyway, saying “I’m not interesting enough to spy on”.

iMessage lacks forward secrecy, so if I get your RSA key which never changes, I can read all your old messages and any new ones too. And that’s just one issue with iMessage. And people don’t know about it, and still use it, thinking it’s secure. (it’s pretty good in my opinion, just wish Apple would fix the issues linked article).

possiblylinux127,

Probably not a reliable source but you should still use Foss with strong encryption (RSA2048+ ideally)

Scolding7300,

For airdrop? There’s a foss airdrop?!

homesweethomeMrL,

Usually when one of Apple’s security measures is breached, the company would issue an update to patch it. We’d hope this will happen here, but the Chinese government is likely to apply pressure on the iPhone maker to leave the exploit unpatched – at least, on Chinese devices.

WELL, Apple? ? . . . We’re waiting

rdri,

Too busy protecting iOS users from iMessages of unauthorized color.

hottari,

Apple has been taking massive Ls after Ls wrt the security of their iPhones in recent times. It’s almost as if magically branding your products “private and secure” doesn’t work.

Aatube,
Aatube avatar

It’s almost as if an authoritarian nation has espionage professionals.

MonsiuerPatEBrown,

We just call them the US

ExLisper,

Finding an exploit created by state-level actor is not a massive L. They have shown in the past that they are able to hack air gaped systems, weaken commonly used security standards and implant vulnerabilities into commercial software. I don’t think you will find a company that is immune to this. Other than that, did they really have so many security issues recently?

red,

Orderint your hardware from China makes it a tad bit easier to shoehorn backdoors into them.

Cqrd,

That’s… basically all hardware these days…

red,

Indeed 😬

hottari,

Read the article. The exploit was found by the state actors not created by them. Apple is ultimately responsible for the mishap due to the insecure design of the aforementioned feature.

Even though China partially had a hand in the creation of this flaw according to the history of the feature.

And yes, Apple has been a constant feature on the news for such privacy leaks of late. You just haven’t been paying attention.

ExLisper,

If state actor would create it it would be a backdoor. Exploits are by definition bugs/security issues that can be… well, exploited and state-level actors are really good at finding them. Still, if it takes resources of state actor to find an exploit I don’t think it’s a massive L. Yes, it’s totally possible they had some other serious security issues recently and I haven’t been paying attention. That’s why I’m asking.

ebits21,
@ebits21@lemmy.ca avatar

Oh China, you rascal.

Outtatime,
@Outtatime@sh.itjust.works avatar

China has deals with apple in that the government can spy on any Apple devices for Chinese citizens.

TheAnonymouseJoker,
@TheAnonymouseJoker@lemmy.ml avatar

You know who actually has real deals with Apple (CIA shell company)? Something something Snowden Assange PRISM FISA gag…

China is not the problem. If you think USA Freedom™ companies are so moral, then why do USA companies not stop business with China and pay back over a trillion dollars worth of debt? Or how about letting Assange free in “western democracy”, or Snowden out of Russia with zero risk of getting JFK’d?

Aatube,
Aatube avatar

CIA shell company? Hah, as if they’d base all their logistics in China. Nobody said the USA was better.

Outtatime,
@Outtatime@sh.itjust.works avatar

I agree. I’m just referring to China since this article is. They claim they figured it out but really they already have the keys to the backdoor. It was a requirement that Apple provided it to China before Apple devices could be sold in China.

TheAnonymouseJoker,
@TheAnonymouseJoker@lemmy.ml avatar

To me it seems more like a custom for US/West tech cos to engage in this spying behaviour, as they themselves also benefit from it (ads -> capitalism -> money + data for AI + helping insurance cos and FICO/VantageScore), besides their 3 letter daddies. The “China!” thing is hogwash, because China is engaging in basically the same or lesser surveillance practices as 5/9/14 Eyes governments for much lesser time.

possiblylinux127,

I think we should use Foss software because no single entity can be trusted.

And just to be clear, China is very much bad. I’m not sure why you are suddenly complaining about the US. Also I’m pretty sure China - US relations are not great so I’d imagine the CIA isn’t exactly in league with China. Just look at the number of Pandas in the US.

bappity,
@bappity@lemmy.world avatar

only reason that I can see why they’re saying they’ve done this has to be some kind of scare tactic

would be a bit stupid to reveal this hand otherwise

Apollo2323,

This is a great podcast about the vulnerabilities China has for their own only…

Click Here: 101. Bug bounties with Chinese characteristics

Episode webpage: www.recordedfuture.com/podcast

Media file: chrt.fm/track/DG79BE/…/RFEI8990516258.mp3?updated…

WhatsThePoint,

Or China is just saying they cracked Air Drop to try to scare protestors from using this feature. If they cracked it, why would they make it public that they cracked it when they could catch dissidents using it without their knowledge? Not to mention making it public puts pressure on Apple to patch it, which would destroy their access. Doesn’t make much sense to make this public if it is true.

beta_tester,

It would be easy for apple to debunk this if it wasn’t true. I’d stay away from it and use proven secure means.

TaviRider,

There’s no way to prove that something is secure. (It reduces to the halting problem.)

idunnololz,
@idunnololz@lemmy.world avatar

Just make a machine to prove it /s

Ross_audio,

42

KnightontheSun,

That’s it, job done. We have our answer, everyone!

EngineerGaming,
@EngineerGaming@feddit.nl avatar

You can still have more certainty or less. If it’s open-source - it doesn’t guarantee safety by any means, sure, but if it’s proprietary like this one - you don’t even get a chance to check what’s going on.

pearsaltchocolatebar,

Nothing is ever completely secure if it’s connected to the internet. It just likely isn’t worth it to hack into. That’s why macs used to be “virus proof”.

Well, yes, because Windows was a much more lucrative target.

Aatube,
Aatube avatar

Why would they? They have all their production logistics in China.

Ferk, (edited )
Ferk avatar

How can Apple debunk it?

If I told you I know of a way by which I can "hack" the lock of your house to enter it, how can you prove whether I'm lying or not? Specially if I'm not willing to show you how I do it, and I haven't given you any proof of having actually done it that you can try to dispute.

beta_tester,

sending email and phone number with each airdrop doesn’t sound right. Apple isn’t a good company but they aren’t dumb. Why would you send that info?

Ferk, (edited )
Ferk avatar

They aren't saying that the email/number is part of the message. What the are saying is that they are able to decrypt the logs in order to identify the senders .

It could be they cross-reference matching some internal ids / tokens / physical addresses of the devices together with all the data the Chinese government already has (or can obtain) ...or it could be a bluff.. who knows... there's not enough information, and what we know is probably distorted.

drdabbles,
@drdabbles@lemmy.world avatar

Whenever a government or government agency announces a successful exploit, I presume they’ve already exhausted it and moved on to another one that won’t be patched or publicly divulged for many years.

possiblylinux127,

I don’t buy it. This smells like a way of causing fear in those who want to share information.

hangukdise,

¿Por que no Los dos?

BearOfaTime,

iMessage is insecure security isn’t as robust as most people think, and this has been known for years.

People still use it

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