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Apple AirTag Gets Hacked For The First Time By Security Expert
By Alexa Heah, 10 May 2021
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Image via starry-sky-visual / Shutterstock.com
Apple’s new AirTags have undergone much experimentation in the recent weeks, including someone drilling a hole into it to make a keyring.
Now, a security researcher has gone a step further, and has successfully managed to hack into the accessory.
A German security researcher known as Stack Smashing on Twitter successfully “broke into the microcontroller of the AirTag” and modified the tracker’s software.
In a video posted on May 9—a little over a week after AirTags became publicly available—the researcher shows how he changed the URL opened by the AirTag. A regular AirTag will open Apple’s ‘Find My’ website, while the modified tracker launched a non-related site, which could potentially be used by hackers for phishing or other nefarious uses.
According to 9to5Mac, all users can do now is wait to see if Apple implements a server-wide block to prevent modified AirTags from accessing a user’s personal details or location via the ‘Find My’ network.
Check out the modified AirTag in the video below.
Built a quick demo: AirTag with modified NFC URL 😎
— stacksmashing (@ghidraninja) May 8, 2021
(Cables only used for power) pic.twitter.com/DrMIK49Tu0
[via 9to5Mac, cover image via starry-sky-visual / Shutterstock.com]
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