Researchers from the Technical University of Darmstadt discovered two vulnerabilities affecting Apple AirDrop file transfer feature. Threat actor can abuse these flaws to extract phone numbers and email addresses of Apple users.

According to the researchers, bugs reside in the authentication process during the initial phase of an AirDrop connection: when devices try to find each other and determine if their owners are familiar.

To establish a connection between device users, the function checks for the presence of their phone numbers in each other's contact lists. Under the hood, the Apple devices exchange AWDL (Apple Wireless Direct Link) packets that contain information about the devices and their owners.

In this way, technical specifications, personal data, Apple identifiers, phone numbers and email addresses can be transmitted. To protect the data from being intercepted, Apple encrypts these details with a SHA256 algorithm.

However, experts have found a vulnerability: if AirDrop is enabled, the mobile device broadcasts above packets in all directions and at all times.

Thus, a cybercriminal who is within Bluetooth range of a victim can use a Wi-Fi adapter to intercept transmitted packets, from which he can then extract confidential data.

Source: anti-malware.ru