iPhones have been exposing your unique MAC despite Apple’s promises otherwise — “From the get-go, this feature was useless,” researcher says of feature put into iOS 14

Comments

• Confuserated@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  tl;dr It was a bug. It is fixed in 17.1.

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  • sir_reginald@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    this is whitewashing Apple. It was introduced in iOS 14. A trillion dollar company like apple should have had this fixed long before.

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    • onlinepersona@programming.dev ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Lol, and Apple didn’t even “discover” it themselves. It was 2 unaffiliated security researchers who did. Who knows if they even implemented any logic besides the UI.

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    • ink@r.nf ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      apple should have had this fixed long before

      not if it was intentional. I mean apple bends over for authoritarian governments around the world. This could easily be used as a state surveillance apparatus and casually “fixed” when discovered down the road.

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  • danc4498@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Hmm, tldr bot didn’t mention this…

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    • ForgotAboutDre@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      This is why we call it artificial intelligence, rather than digital intelligence.

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• autotldr@lemmings.world [bot] ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  This is the best summary I could come up with:

  ---

  Three years ago, Apple introduced a privacy-enhancing feature that hid the Wi-Fi address of iPhones and iPads when they joined a network.

  Enter CreepyDOL, a low-cost, distributed network of Wi-Fi sensors that stalks people as they move about neighborhoods or even entire cities.

  In 2020, Apple released iOS 14 with a feature that, by default, hid Wi-Fi MACs when devices connected to a network.

  Over time, Apple has enhanced the feature, for instance, by allowing users to assign a new private Wi-Fi address for a given SSID.

  In fairness to Apple, the feature wasn’t useless, because it did prevent passive sniffing by devices such as the above-referended CreepyDOL.

  But the failure to remove the real MAC from the port 5353/UDP still meant that anyone connected to a network could pull the unique identifier with no trouble.

  ---

  The original article contains 680 words, the summary contains 136 words. Saved 80%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

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• netchami@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Get a Google Pixel. Use GrapheneOS.

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  • onlinepersona@programming.dev ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Step 1: Give the surveillance company money

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    • helenslunch@feddit.nl ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      1. I doubt they make much, if any money, on the hardware. I paid ~$100 for my P7 w/ P5 trade-in

      2. They make the most open and secure hardware, full stop.

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    • netchami@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Better than giving them your data. They can’t use your money to ruin your life, but they can very well do that with your data.

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    • SatyrSack@lemmy.one ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Check out Swappa

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  • lnxtx@feddit.nl ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Pixels are too expensive. And you will support private data hungry evil company.

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    • netchami@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Pixels are too expensive.

      My Pixel 6a was 300 bucks, it’s not that expensive and I get security updates until 2027. With 8th Generation Pixels even get 7 years of updates.

      And you will support private data hungry evil company.

      Pixels are the only phones that allow you to fully erase everything related to Google and at the same time keeping good security.

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    • zik@zorg.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Compared to Apple?

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• Vivalde@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  Very useful tech for schools, supermarkets and malls. I wonder if Apple will patch the 5353 port issue.

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