Security News > 2021 > April > Apple AirDrop users reportedly vulnerable to security flaw
iPhone users with AirDrop enabled may unknowingly expose certain personal information to a complete stranger.
In a report released last week, researchers at the Department of Computer Science at the University of Darmstadt in Germany revealed their discovery of a security hole in Apple's AirDrop.
To share a file with someone via AirDrop, you use the iOS Sharing feature and specify AirDrop as the tool.
If the other person's AirDrop is set to Contacts Only, Apple needs to determine if you're in that person's contact list.
To replace the unsecure AirDrop design, the researchers said they created their own solution dubbed "PrivateDrop." Based on optimized cryptographic protocols, PrivateDrop can quickly and securely determine if you're in a fellow iPhone user's contact list without having to exchange the vulnerable hash values.
For now, the researchers advise users to turn off AirDrop.