2y ago

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

iPhones have been exposing your unique MAC despite Apple’s promises otherwise

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::“From the get-go, this feature was useless,” researcher says of feature put into iOS 14.

Hacker News @derp.foo

haxor @derp.foo

BOT

2y ago

iPhones have been exposing MAC addresses despite Apple’s promises otherwise

arstechnica.com /security/2023/10/iphone-privacy-feature-hiding-wi-fi-macs-has-failed-to-work-for-3-years/

Apple @lemmy.world

misk @sopuli.xyz

2y ago

iPhones have been exposing your unique MAC despite Apple’s promises otherwise

arstechnica.com /security/2023/10/iphone-privacy-feature-hiding-wi-fi-macs-has-failed-to-work-for-3-years/

Apple @lemmy.zip

BrikoX @lemmy.zip

2y ago

iPhones have been exposing your unique MAC despite Apple’s promises otherwise

arstechnica.com /security/2023/10/iphone-privacy-feature-hiding-wi-fi-macs-has-failed-to-work-for-3-years/

30 comments

tl;dr It was a bug. It is fixed in 17.1.
- this is whitewashing Apple. It was introduced in iOS 14. A trillion dollar company like apple should have had this fixed long before.
  
  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.
  
  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 as a "bug".
- Hmm, tldr bot didn’t mention this…
  
  This is why we call it artificial intelligence, rather than digital intelligence.
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!
Very useful tech for schools, supermarkets and malls. I wonder if Apple will patch the 5353 port issue.
Get a Google Pixel. Use GrapheneOS.
- Step 1: Give the surveillance company money
  
  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.
  
  Check out Swappa
- Pixels are too expensive. And you will support private data hungry evil company.
  
  Compared to Apple?
  
  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 getting 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 keep good security.
I don’t understand why this article isn’t BS. It was meant to prevent passive snooping. If I connect to a network, it needs to know who I am.
I’ve worked with companies that implement this type of tech for monitoring road traffic congestion. IOS reduced the number of ‘saw same phone twice and can calculate speed’
- You are who you say you are to a network though, at least at layer 2.
  If you say you’re one MAC address one time and another next time then so you are.
  Let me give you an example. Let’s say I’m a device trying to connect to a network. Among other things I tell it “can I have an IP address, my MAC address is Majestic”. It says in turn, sure and notes down Majestic and routes or switches things to me when another device says it wants to reach my IP. In Wi-Fi it basically shouts out it has a packet for Majestic and sends it out onto the air with my unique encryption key I previously negotiated and I am listening for packets for Majestic and grab and process that packet. Now if I go back and connect again and call myself Dull it’ll do the same thing. Those names being stand-ins for MAC addresses of course.
  This is simplified of course. And this is why MAC whitelisting is a futile attempt at security.

30 comments