The security researcher Kishan Bavaria discovered a denial-of-service (DoS) attack dubbed the AirDos that work against iPhone, iPad, Mac and iPod and reported to Apple in August 2019
The security researcher Kishan Bavaria discovered a denial-of-service (DoS) attack dubbed the AirDos that work against iPhone, iPad, Mac and iPod and reported to Apple in August 2019.
AirDrop
AirDrop is an ad-hoc service in Apple Inc.’s iOS and macOS operating systems, which enables the transfer of files among supported Macintosh computers and iOS devices over Wi-Finland Bluetooth, without using mail or a mass storage device.
How does the bug work?
When a file is received, iOS blocks the display until the file is accepted or rejected: because iOS didn’t limit the number of file requests a device can accept.
AirDos lets an attacker infinitely spam all nearby iOS devices with the AirDrop share popup.
This share popup blocks the UI so the device owner won’t be able to do anything on the device except to accept/decline the popup which will keep reappearing regardless how many times the user presses the Accept or Decline buttons.
The attack continues even after the user locks and unlocks the device.
If the AirDrop setting is set to ‘everyone’ anyone can be the attacker, but if the user has set to ‘contacts only’ then the attack could be by someone from the contact list.
How can you disable the attack?
Attacks can be stopped by getting out of range of the attacking device or turn off AirDrop/WiFi/Bluetooth.
iOS and iPadOS Users can stop an attack by disabling Bluetooth and Wi-Fi through Siri or control centre, but it works only if it is enabled.
Attacks can be prevented by ensuring that the AirDrop is turned on only when needed and don’t set it to “everyone”.
Apple addressed the issue in iOS 13.3, iPadOS13.3 and macOS 10.15.2.
Apple implemented a rate-limiting mechanism in iOS and iPadOS and possibly in macOS, where if a user declines three requests from the same device, then the operating system will automatically decline all subsequent requests from that device.
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