It’s been a while since I wrote an “attack of the week” post, and the fault for this is entirely mine. I’ve been much too busy writing boring posts about Schnorr signatures!…
On the bright side, it only affects people who actually use the feature, so as long as your friends aren’t being actively followed or AirDropping something in the middle of a protest, you’re probably fine.
It does, however, mean you might not want to accept random stuff…
researchers… have used these vulnerabilities to help police to identify the sender of “unauthorized” AirDrop materials, using a technique based on rainbow tables.
I keep airdrop off primarily for battery conservation and to avoid false/prank drops, but it’s nice to know I’ve been avoiding this risk as well.
Unfortunately most iPhone users I know forget airdrop even exists and it just stays on constantly.
On the bright side, it only affects people who actually use the feature, so as long as your friends aren’t being actively followed or AirDropping something in the middle of a protest, you’re probably fine.
It does, however, mean you might not want to accept random stuff…