After years of rumors, recently we finally got to know the characteristics of Apple AirTags. They have been on the market for just over a week and it has already been enough for some to be able to do mischief with them, as has happened with a well-known cybersecurity expert who has managed to manipulate the device to make its functionalities can be changed to suit. whim. We will tell you below how he achieved this and to what extent you should worry about yours.
The German who managed to circumvent the AirTag system
Known on Twitter as Stackmashing, this German cybersecurity expert recounted through the social network how he had completely exploited the Apple accessory to reprogram it at will. Of course, it was not an easy process because for this it had several units that were discarded along the way until it finally achieved its objective. All this can be seen in a thread that he posted on the aforementioned social network and in which he even included a video with the manipulated AirTag.
The objective of this long process was none other than to change the internal programming of the controller of this device and be able to do whatever it wanted with it, thereby demonstrating the security flaws that AirTags have. Proof that he succeeded is found in the published video, in which he scans an AirTag using NFC and instead of showing a redirect to Apple’s website, it shows another url that was altered by Stackmashing.
Rest easy for the security of your AirTag
This process has been carried out by an expert who also does not report exactly how he carried it out, so at first it remains a mystery how he did it. This type of professional does not focus this type of methods to do evil but rather to prevent, so it is very likely that they have informed Apple of the vulnerabilities and that they can be resolved soon, since in the end they depend to a large extent of the Search network that the company itself manages through its servers.
The fact that even an expert has taken hours to achieve the process is a good sign that it is not something simple and that therefore anyone can do. Although he determines that whoever wants to do it “alone” will need a lot of time and knowledge, it is clear that not everyone has it, especially knowledge. Therefore, it would be highly unlikely that this could happen to an AirTag you own if it is lost or stolen, since you could have already marked it as lost before.
In any case, it is interesting to know this type of information, since it shows once again that unfortunately there is practically no device or system that is insurmountable. In any case, we insist on emphasizing that Apple puts its entire team of experts to take care of this type of detail, offering instant solutions in many cases of vulnerabilities or adding important patches in each software update.
