A move from China that will anger Apple; AirDrop has been cracked
China has announced that it has cracked Apple's AirDrop, allowing it to identify the emails and phone numbers of individuals sending illegal content.
12punto
The Chinese government has announced that it has managed to crack Apple’s AirDrop to prevent the transmission of illegal images, videos, audio, and other files by malicious actors. This information was first spotted by Bloomberg. In a post published online, state-backed researchers in China praised this “technological breakthrough,” stating that they can now identify individuals sending AirDrop files in public spaces via their emails and phone numbers, and can block their devices.
APPLE HAS YET TO MAKE ANY STATEMENT ON THE MATTER
As reported by Chip from foreign sources, this “breakthrough” could further tighten public surveillance in the country. Apple had limited the use of AirDrop in China in November 2022 after anti-government activists used it to spread political information during protests, with the “Everyone” option automatically turning off after 10 minutes. Following the backlash, the company later introduced this limitation as a feature for users worldwide with iOS 16.2.
According to the government, it is possible to extract and analyze AirDrop logs. It was determined that fields related to the sender's device name, email address, and mobile phone number are recorded as hash values, with some fields related to the hash value being masked. The technical team behind the discovery created a “rainbow table” consisting of mobile phone numbers and email accounts to resolve this, which can convert the encrypted text back into plain text and quickly lock onto the sender's mobile phone number and email account.
Currently, it is unclear whether Chinese authorities can remotely block the phones of activists who sent AirDrop files during protests or people playing pranks on others in the subway, or if they can only retrieve this data in controlled environments. Nevertheless, if these phones are seized, it appears possible for them to determine if someone has sent “illegal images” to others.
Apple has not commented on the matter, and it is unknown whether the company will be able to fix this security flaw. It is possible that the tech giant, which generally complies with China's censorship, might “overlook” this discovery, especially considering the country's significant role in its supply chain.