Jailbroken AirTags Could Become a Privacy Nightmare | Hacker News Reader

Jailbroken AirTags Could Become a Privacy Nightmare

extremetech.com

12 pointsanupamchugh15 comments

This sounds like a stretch to me. You can modify anything to do something that it wasn't designed to do. Even if the firmware was 100% hack proof, you could just toss in your own hardware. I'm having a hard time figuring out which “privacy nightmare” is opened up by this that isn't already a commercialized device that you could buy on Amazon. It seems much more likely that an attacker would simply use one of those devices.

The main difference I can think of is that Airtags can piggy-back on all Apple devices around it to track better.

Not really, technically anyone can join the network:

"Part of the Made for iPhone (MFi) Program, the Find My network accessory program is designed for any accessory developer looking to connect an existing or new product to the Find My network. Third-party products must adhere to all the privacy protections of the Find My network that Apple customers rely on."

https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2021/04/apples-find-my-networ...

I have to wonder how many of those "privacy protections" are enforced by the software running on the tag itself, though.

A malicious tag might be able to attack an iPhone -- it's not hard to imagine that the "communicate with tag" protocol stack may be vulnerable.

That's good observation.

I am sure you can buy a superior stalking device of aliexpress already anyway, so why bother?

Exactly, and probably for cheaper. This article is a really weird take.

just spitballing here, but if someone put a random device on my person, I would be pretty likely to find it sooner or later. But the AirTag in my laptop bag could be replaced with another and I might not notice for months or longer.

Just theorizing here, but if Apple can't detect and shot these down, they are superior and more precise (in an urban environment) than whatever you can commercially find (which is probably GPS+cell tower at most) as it can utilise the whole find my device network.

How precise does a stalking device need to be, really? Finding your keys requires precision, but humans are pretty easy to spot in comparison.

Would it really be possible to get best piece of the tech working? The fact it can rely on iOS network to find it? I’m sure that would be the hard part.

This could definitely be used to track people. I wonder if it’s possible to physically disable the speaker, and if so, is there a next level of stalking protection? Can’t help but be reminded of the cameras in The Circle…

Yeah, but so could GPS trackers, which have existed for years?

How is a tracker 100$? I got one for 35?

They are $29 or $99 for four. Not sure where the article got the $100 figure.

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