Where is the network misused as a messenger: Security researchers misappropriated Apple’s invention

Again, attention is drawn to a potential security problem of the AirTags, more specifically it is more about the where is network. And it must also be noted: Currently, the possibility of penetrating the Where is network, also discovered by a German security researcher, is more fascinating than threatening, but the security-relevant implications can still come.

Are the AirTags in the headlines again when it comes to security? Can’t mean anything good, some will now perhaps think, whether the most recently discovered gap poses a real danger is not yet entirely clear, however. However, it is potentially problematic.

What’s the matter?

The where is network works in a way that is as simple as it is ingenious. All around one billion devices exchange coded data with each other when a device comes within range of another device in the network. Among other things, the GPS position is exchanged here in order to find a lost AirTag. The German security researcher Fabian Bräunlein has now managed to exchange this data record for any other message. As a result, he was able to use a self-made NFC transmitter to send short text messages that were picked up by nearby Apple devices and forwarded to the network. These were encrypted end-to-end, just like the GPS coordinates are otherwise. On a Mac that ran software that was also written by Bräunlein, these messages reappeared later, as he did in a blog entry explained.

It is currently unclear what useful application possibilities result from this and Apple should put an end to this fact soon, but the discovery shows how powerful a global network of hundreds of millions of devices can potentially be as a tool.

In another message, we reported about the first hardware hack of the AirTag, which in its mode of action is roughly equivalent to a jailbreak.

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