Safety: why this network of the location network worries

Thatl’iPhone 16ehas been presented, other Apple products are particularly expected by consumers in the coming weeks. We can evoke the MacBook Air M4, the Home Pod with screen and evenAirtag 2, which would arrive in May or JuneAccording to informant Kosutami. Unfortunately,A disturbing survey on the Locate networkcould well slow down consumers' desire to get it and even use their current Airtag.

A serious vulnerability discovered in location

Researchers from George Mason University share the discovery of important vulnerability in the Localier application. There is a way for pirates ofLocate almost any computer or mobile deviceThanks to the attack called "Nroottag". It uses the Bluetooth address of a device combined with the location network to transform the target devices so of location beacons. They manage to make believe that it is a lost Airtag.

«This amounts to transforming any laptop, telephone or even aertag game console, without the owner realizing it. And the hacker can do all of this from a distance, thousands of kilometers away, with only a few dollars"Explains Junming Chen, principal author of the study.

The Airtag then sends Bluetooth messages to nearby Apple devices, which then anonymously relay its positionviaApple Cloud to its owner so that he can locate him.

The researchers were able to locate a computer to the nearest three meters, to accurately follow the route of an electric bicycle moving in a city, and even to reconstruct the exact trajectory of a game console placed on an aircraft, while identifying the flight number of it.

«If the hacking of your smart lock is frightening, it is even more so if the attacker also knows his location. With the attack method we have introduced, the attacker can achieve it", Worries Professor Qiang Zeng. Another particularly alarming data: its success rate. Researchers have managed to follow devices thanks to this 90 % of time method.

Note that George Mason university informed Apple of the problem in July 2024. The American company has committed to correcting the problem in its future updates. Junming Chen believes that it will take several years for all the affected devices to end up having the correctives making the vulnerability disappear. Researchers advise users toBeware of applications that require Bluetooth authorizationsAnd keep their devices up to date.