China Claims It Has Cracked Apple's AirDrop

(RTTNews) - A Chinese state-backed tech institute claims to have discovered a way to decrypt Apple's AirDrop feature, allowing the government to identify phone numbers or email addresses of those who share using the tech.

The company, Wangshendongjian Technology, was able to help police track down people who used the service to send "inappropriate information" to passersby in the Beijing subway.

It identified the senders' mobile phone numbers and email addresses as part of an investigation following a complaint.

AirDrop has been blamed for nuisance messages received by some commuters on subways and buses in Chinese cities.

AirDrop allows Apple users to transfer files among supported Macintosh computers and iOS devices by means of close-range wireless communication. This communication takes place over Apple Wireless Direct Link 'Action Frames' and 'Data Frames' using generated link-local IPv6 addresses instead of the Wi-Fi chip's fixed MAC address.

Wangshendongjian Technology "broke through the technical difficulties of anonymous traceability through AirDrop," which "prevented the further spread of inappropriate remarks and potential bad influence," the Justice Bureau said.

China has a long history of controlling internet services in the country, including which sites can be visited and what mobile apps can be used.

However, in order to get around censorship in the country, people turned to Apple's AirDrop feature, which doesn't require cellular service and uses Bluetooth and a private Wi-Fi network to send images and photos between devices.

Airdrop was also reportedly used in the 2019 pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, with protesters frequently using AirDrop to share pamphlets and posters. In 2022, the New York Times reported that Chinese protestors again turned to AirDrop to spread awareness of protests and anti-Xi messages.

Soon after, Apple released iOS 16.1.1, which limited the ability to receive AirDropped images from "Everyone" to only 10 minutes for phones sold in China.