For Apple, a slap across the wrist and right in an aspect in which those from Cupertino usually regularly show their chest. And don’t get me wrong on this point, because I agree that we’re talking about a tech company that we’ve seen take quite a few measures to protect the privacy and security of its users. From technologies like Private Relay that worry concerned parties precisely to protect user privacy, to Isolation Mode to protect against advanced threats like Pegasus, every now and then the company makes some progress in this regard.

It is also fair to point out has very serious failures in this regard. The latter prompted a lawsuit by its users against the company, which represents a significant stain on its file, or the initial plans of NeuralHash, which were raised with very good intentions, but which represented a significant reduction in the privacy of the company’s users, to the point that Apple was eventually forced to cancel it.

So if we ask on the street, we will certainly find the most diverse opinions, from those who continue to believe that Apple takes care of the privacy of its users impeccably, to those who do not trust Cupertino at all. In my case, I believe that they deserved to be positively recognized in this sense, but it is also clear to me that cases that point in the opposite direction, either by action or omission, diminish their image and prevent me from fully trusting them. in society. And in my case, the turning point in this sense was marked when iOS problems with VPN appeared, with all the risks that come with it.

Well (although it would almost be more correct to say “okay”, given the facts), we find ourselves once again with the privacy issue, namely Apple’s operating systems shared our MAC address even though they were supposed to hide this information. This issue, now fixed, affected iOS, iPadOS, tvOS and watchOS, this means that all Apple mobile devices have been affected by this issue. The updated OS versions that address this are iOS 17.1 and iPadOS 17.1, iOS 16.7.2 and iPadOS 16.7.2, tvOS 17.1 and watchOS 10.1.

The problem is that in 2020, Apple announced a feature that prevented the device’s real MAC from being displayed by replacing it on connections with a fake one that also varied depending on the SSID of the wireless connection, and even allows users to assign a specific fake MAC to each SSID. However, as noted, this replacement operation was only partially performed because although it replaced the MAC in most of the data trafficAirPlay discovery requests issued by devices when connected to the network revealed the actual MAC address.

So, as you can see in the video above, just analyze network traffic with a tool like Wireshark so that when a device connects to a network, it finds out both its real MAC and the one it’s trying to hide.

It is undoubtedly true the scope of the danger of this problem is limitedand this is not a real threat to a large portion of Apple device users, but the problem is that it provides a false sense of security to people who, for various reasons, needed to trust this feature. it’s a wonder no one at Apple has noticed this in three years. Fortunately, as I already indicated, updated versions of the operating system have already been published that address this, but it seems that this feature was not properly evaluated before release, and even more so, if we talk about security, it is a problem ., a very serious problem.

The most serious is undoubtedly that this is not the first time. I mentioned earlier the iOS issue with VPNs, something that I personally find unacceptable and another example of a lack of care in deploying a security feature. And since, as I indicated at the beginning, this is one of the points, along with privacy, that Apple focuses on when talking about its devices, It is clear that something has to change in Cupertino.