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AirDrop is leaking email addresses and phone numbers
Ars Technica
This story first appeared Ars Technica, a reliable source for technology news, technology policy analysis, reviews, and more. Ars is the parent company of WIRED, Condé Nast.
AirDrop uses Wi-Fi and Bluetooth Low Energy to establish direct connections with nearby devices so you can send photos, documents, and more iOS or macOS the device to another. One mode allows you to connect only to contacts, the second allows you to connect to anyone, and the last does not allow any connection.
To determine whether the device of an AirDrop transmitter should connect to other nearby devices Bluetooth advertisements with a partial cryptographic hash of the sender’s phone number and email address. If there is a starter that has been hacked with any phone number or email address in the recipient’s address book, or if the device is set to receive from everyone, the two devices will perform a Wi-Fi mutual authentication interven
Apple Security Warning: 1.65B iPhone, MacBook Users Private Data Could Leak Due To AirDrop Vulnerability
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The vulnerability was reported to Apple almost two years ago
Apparently, Apple has neither acknowledged the problem nor confirmed that it is working on a fix
Security researchers recently discovered Airdrop, a feature available on iPhone and Mac, is leaking users phone numbers and emails.
AirDrop allows users to share documents, photos and other files between nearby Apple devices using WiFi and Bluetooth. With these connectivity features turned on, Apple device users could discover each other s devices, connect and share. However, the discovery process could leave Apple devices open to possible data pirates, according to computer science researchers at the Technical University of Darmstadt in Germany.
Security issue in Apple Airdrop allow attackers to steal personal information
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A security issue in Apple Inc.’s AirDrop feature can allow an attacker to steal personal information from an Apple user.
Detailed April 21 by security researchers at the Technical University of Darmstadt in Germany, the security issue was first discovered two years ago but despite their contacting Apple in May 2019, the issue still exists.
Using the vulnerability, attackers can learn the phone number and email address of an AirDrop user even a complete stranger. To do so, all they require is a Wi-Fi capable device and to be in physical proximity to a target. They can initiate the discovery process by opening the sharing panel on an iOS or macOS device.
(Pocket-lint) - Apple s AirDrop feature could expose personal contact information details to nearby strangers, a team of researchers has said.
The file-sharing shortcut, which is available on iOS, iPadOS and macOS, allows users to quickly and easily send photos, documents and more when another Apple device is nearby.
However, computer science researchers at the Technical University of Darmstadt have suggested the feature has a significant security flaw. In the team s recently published paper, it s suggested that strangers within nearby range of Apple devices with AirDrop turned on can lift email address and phone number information.
Despite notifying Apple of the issue back in May 2019, no acknowledgement or fix for the flaw has since been rolled out to an estimated 1.5 billion affected devices, the team says.