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September 29, 2021 10:02 pm

Apple AirTag Bug Enables 'Good Samaritan' Attack

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Krebs On Security: The new $30 AirTag tracking device from Apple has a feature that allows anyone who finds one of these tiny location beacons to scan it with a mobile phone and discover its owner's phone number if the AirTag has been set to lost mode. But according to new research, this same feature can be abused to redirect the Good Samaritan to an iCloud phishing page -- or to any other malicious website. The AirTag's "Lost Mode" lets users alert Apple when an AirTag is missing. Setting it to Lost Mode generates a unique URL at https://found.apple.com/ and allows the user to enter a personal message and contact phone number. Anyone who finds the AirTag and scans it with an Apple or Android phone will immediately see that unique Apple URL with the owner's message. When scanned, an AirTag in Lost Mode will present a short message asking the finder to call the owner at at their specified phone number. This information pops up without asking the finder to log in or provide any personal information. But your average Good Samaritan might not know this. That's important because Apple's Lost Mode doesn't currently stop users from injecting arbitrary computer code into its phone number field -- such as code that causes the Good Samaritan's device to visit a phony Apple iCloud login page. The vulnerability was discovered and reported to Apple by Bobby Rauch, a security consultant and penetration tester based in Boston. Rauch told KrebsOnSecurity the AirTag weakness makes the devices cheap and possibly very effective physical trojan horses.

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