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Ask HN: can Wireless-CarPlay dongles steal your data?

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Re: Ask HN: can Wireless-CarPlay dongles steal your data?

#21

Post by Fr0styMatt88 »

kelnos wrote: post #20

I kinda just don't get wireless CarPlay/Android Auto at all. If I'm going to connect my phone to my car wirelessly for that, it's gonna drain the battery. So I'm going to plug it in so it can charge. So... now it's wired, so why do I need wireless? I guess if you have a wireless charging pad in your car, then that's a little bit more convenient. But the big inconvenience for me is just to have to take it out of my po…

I immediately thought of the magnetic charging as well before getting to your second paragraph.

One other concern I’d have with wired charging in the car long-term is wear and tear on the USB port and the cable over time (also considering the cable is likely being left in a sometimes very hot car).

Re: Ask HN: can Wireless-CarPlay dongles steal your data?

#22

Post by runjake »

ddtaylor wrote: post #7
runjake wrote: post #4

I can think of several ways to exfiltrate data, even with the limited information you provided, so, yes. But is it happening? Who knows. Maybe it doesn't now, but a future firmware update will. Who knows. Given your wise threat model, I'd avoid buying stuff from AliExpress.

What makes you think "American" products aren't just rebranded AliExpress products essentially?

Nothing. I didn't mention anything about American products. I only said it was wise, given OP's security posture, not to buy electronics off of AliExpress, which is specifically what they were asking about.

Re: Ask HN: can Wireless-CarPlay dongles steal your data?

#23

Post by snapetom »

kelnos wrote: post #20

I kinda just don't get wireless CarPlay/Android Auto at all. If I'm going to connect my phone to my car wirelessly for that, it's gonna drain the battery. So I'm going to plug it in so it can charge. So... now it's wired, so why do I need wireless? I guess if you have a wireless charging pad in your car, then that's a little bit more convenient. But the big inconvenience for me is just to have to take it out of my po…

For Lightning at least, it was touchy as hell. It required a really good constant connection, or you'd constantly disconnect to the base car OS and reconnect to CarPlay. My wife and I had a handful of cables, even quality ones like Anker and Belkin, that were no longer good enough for CarPlay, but worked perfectly fine for regular charging.

Re: Ask HN: can Wireless-CarPlay dongles steal your data?

#24

Post by teo_zero »

kelnos wrote: post #20

I kinda just don't get wireless CarPlay/Android Auto at all. If I'm going to connect my phone to my car wirelessly for that, it's gonna drain the battery. So I'm going to plug it in so it can charge. So... now it's wired, so why do I need wireless? I guess if you have a wireless charging pad in your car, then that's a little bit more convenient. But the big inconvenience for me is just to have to take it out of my po…

> I kinda just don't get wireless CarPlay/Android Auto at all. If I'm going to connect my phone to my car wirelessly for that, it's gonna drain the battery. So I'm going to plug it in so it can charge. So... now it's wired, so why do I need wireless?

For short trips. Like the two many of us do every single working day.

Re: Ask HN: can Wireless-CarPlay dongles steal your data?

#25

Post by packtreefly »

kelnos wrote: post #20

I kinda just don't get wireless CarPlay/Android Auto at all. If I'm going to connect my phone to my car wirelessly for that, it's gonna drain the battery. So I'm going to plug it in so it can charge. So... now it's wired, so why do I need wireless? I guess if you have a wireless charging pad in your car, then that's a little bit more convenient. But the big inconvenience for me is just to have to take it out of my po…

>I kinda just don't get wireless CarPlay/Android Auto at all.

In addition to your argument, wireless CarPlay is also notoriously unreliable.[1]

[1]: https://www.google.com/search?q=wireless+carplay+not+working...

Re: Ask HN: can Wireless-CarPlay dongles steal your data?

#26

Post by kelnos »

Fr0styMatt88 wrote: post #21
kelnos wrote: post #20

I kinda just don't get wireless CarPlay/Android Auto at all. If I'm going to connect my phone to my car wirelessly for that, it's gonna drain the battery. So I'm going to plug it in so it can charge. So... now it's wired, so why do I need wireless? I guess if you have a wireless charging pad in your car, then that's a little bit more convenient. But the big inconvenience for me is just to have to take it out of my po…

I immediately thought of the magnetic charging as well before getting to your second paragraph. One other concern I’d have with wired charging in the car long-term is wear and tear on the USB port and the cable over time (also considering the cable is likely being left in a sometimes very hot car).

I leave the cable always plugged in on the car side, so I'm not worried about that port failing. I'm just not that worried about the port on the phone, though.

And if the cable dies, they're simple and cheap to replace.

Re: Ask HN: can Wireless-CarPlay dongles steal your data?

#27

Post by kelnos »

teo_zero wrote: post #24
kelnos wrote: post #20

I kinda just don't get wireless CarPlay/Android Auto at all. If I'm going to connect my phone to my car wirelessly for that, it's gonna drain the battery. So I'm going to plug it in so it can charge. So... now it's wired, so why do I need wireless? I guess if you have a wireless charging pad in your car, then that's a little bit more convenient. But the big inconvenience for me is just to have to take it out of my po…

> I kinda just don't get wireless CarPlay/Android Auto at all. If I'm going to connect my phone to my car wirelessly for that, it's gonna drain the battery. So I'm going to plug it in so it can charge. So... now it's wired, so why do I need wireless? For short trips. Like the two many of us do every single working day.

"Short" is perhaps relative. I know many people with hour+ commutes; they'll be wanting to plug in, presumably.

I guess I'm also just a low-key battery-life stresser. If I have the opportunity to plug in outside the home, with a charging cable readily in front of, me, I'm gonna do it... just in case.

I dunno, I still don't get it. Wireless anything is always going to be significantly less reliable than wired, and I've heard enough stories of wireless CarPlay/AA flaking out (with dongles and built-in setups) to turn me off on it.

Wireless is incredibly convenient when you don't have a wire and a port nearby, but that will essentially never be that case while you're in the car.

Re: Ask HN: can Wireless-CarPlay dongles steal your data?

#28

Post by olyjohn »

joshstrange wrote: post #9
packtreefly wrote: post #3

If the dongle acts as a wifi AP with a DHCP server, it could give the iPhone an ip address but no gateway upon connection. This will cause the iPhone to talk directly to the dongle via the WiFi interface, but talk to the rest of the internet via the cellular connection. You can determine this by checking the WiFi network's properties after the connection is established. If there's no value in the "Router" field, that…

This is almost certainly the answer and clever as hell. You just have to make sure the server storing the firmware (which you control) has the right CORS headers (as you mention) and you are in business. This means that the CarPlay device has no "internet" (spoiler: it never had real internet access) unless you are on that page interacting with it. I'm not sure how these devices work, I mean I know they broadcast the…

If you want to capture what's going on, you don't need 120fps video. Take a low-res snapshot every 5-10 minutes and send it off. It doesn't need OCR or anything fancy. That's still a ton of information, with very little bandwidth.

Re: Ask HN: can Wireless-CarPlay dongles steal your data?

#30

Post by watermelon0 »

kelnos wrote: post #20

I kinda just don't get wireless CarPlay/Android Auto at all. If I'm going to connect my phone to my car wirelessly for that, it's gonna drain the battery. So I'm going to plug it in so it can charge. So... now it's wired, so why do I need wireless? I guess if you have a wireless charging pad in your car, then that's a little bit more convenient. But the big inconvenience for me is just to have to take it out of my po…

I practically always use it wirelessly, because it's just so convenient to place it in the phone compartment, and not have to deal with the charging cable hanging around.

I generally don't have any issues with charging, so phone either stays at the same battery level, or charges a bit (depending on how long I drive).

The only downside is that phone heats up due to the usage of CarPlay as well as due to the wireless charging, which triggers heavy throttling of iOS, and I assume this is not ideal for the phone/battery as well.

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