OpenHaystack: Tracking Personal 'AirTags' via Apple's Find My Network • Hacker News Board

Re: OpenHaystack: Tracking Personal 'AirTags' via Apple's Find My Network

#11

Post by jon-wood » Thu, Mar 04, 2021, 8:12 PM UTC

mensetmanusman wrote: post #2

Start enabling ipv6 on your routers, these iot devices are going to break ipv4.

These devices don’t have a network connection, tracking is done via BLE which just broadcasts a beacon regularly and is then picked up by nearby Apple devices which do have a connection.

Re: OpenHaystack: Tracking Personal 'AirTags' via Apple's Find My Network

#12

Post by CubsFan1060 » Thu, Mar 04, 2021, 8:26 PM UTC

tinus_hn wrote: post #4

How does Apple prevent me from using this to track random people based for instance on their Bluetooth headphones?

https://www.macrumors.com/2021/03/04/ios-14-5-item-safety-fe...

Is that what you're asking?

Re: OpenHaystack: Tracking Personal 'AirTags' via Apple's Find My Network

#13

Post by AlotOfReading » Thu, Mar 04, 2021, 8:58 PM UTC

ArchOversight wrote: post #9

tinus_hn wrote: post #4

How does Apple prevent me from using this to track random people based for instance on their Bluetooth headphones?

If you are within BLE range you can "track" someone, but that is already the case with wifi/bluetooth in general. Even known the public key, you can download the encrypted reports from Apple, but since you don't have the private key you can't decrypt the location messages.

That's why devices that aren't intended to be beacons are supposed to enable address randomization. It still has some security issues and undirected advertising of unique public keys obviously defeats the point, but it's more difficult to track than classic devices were.

Re: OpenHaystack: Tracking Personal 'AirTags' via Apple's Find My Network

#14

Post by tinus_hn » Thu, Mar 04, 2021, 9:35 PM UTC

bberenberg wrote: post #5

tinus_hn wrote: post #4

How does Apple prevent me from using this to track random people based for instance on their Bluetooth headphones?

You would have to flash their headphones with custom firmware to do this. Take a look at https://github.com/seemoo-lab/openhaystack#how-does-apples-f...

All right, so it isn’t normal Bluetooth devices but requires a special feature in the device.

Re: OpenHaystack: Tracking Personal 'AirTags' via Apple's Find My Network

#15

Post by coolspot » Fri, Mar 05, 2021, 5:54 AM UTC

nathanielostrer wrote: post #7

Could you make this work with a tile?

This requires BLE device to broadcast your public key in special packets.

I don’t think you can upload custom logic on Tile to make it broadcast arbitrary BLE packets.

Re: OpenHaystack: Tracking Personal 'AirTags' via Apple's Find My Network

#16

Post by londons_explore » Fri, Mar 05, 2021, 8:39 AM UTC

coolspot wrote: post #15

nathanielostrer wrote: post #7

Could you make this work with a tile?

This requires BLE device to broadcast your public key in special packets. I don’t think you can upload custom logic on Tile to make it broadcast arbitrary BLE packets.

You could with a new firmware.

Re: OpenHaystack: Tracking Personal 'AirTags' via Apple's Find My Network

#17

Post by KMnO4 » Fri, Mar 05, 2021, 6:58 PM UTC

nathanielostrer wrote: post #7

Could you make this work with a tile?

Not really, but perhaps someone could make one based on a cheap Nordic NRF51823 or NRF5832. Actually, a quick search shows that you can already buy exactly that (even with Apple compatibility built in).