Apple AirTags Could be Hacked – See How this Researcher did it

Some say that it isn’t easy to hack into an Apple’s device. This is true but not for everyone. This German researcher, who goes by his Twitter name “stacksmaching”, recently hacked into Apple’s newest device, the AirTag. This researcher reversed engineer the microcontroller on the device (and bricked two AppleTag).

According to him, the change made had to do with the URL that appears on a notification when an AirTag in Lost Mode is tapped by an NFC-enabled smartphone (iOS or Android).

When the device is in Lost Mode, it sends out signals to nearly 1 billion active Apple devices worldwide. When an AirTag is discovered by this “Find My” network,” placing the AirTag close to an iPhone or an NFC-enabled Android device will open a notification redirecting the person finding the lost tag to a website (found.apple.com). “Hopefully, the owner of the missing object remembered to add his contact information, including a phone number and a message.”

This should be alarming because the AirTag hack might allow someone to track a particular AirTag user. Apple already sends out an alert when an AirTag that doesn’t belong is discovered “traveling” with a family. As for the possibility that an AirTag can be hacked to create a security problem, it looks like it has proven to be possible, and Apple will need to respond.