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Very interesting. I was under the impression that Apple used hardware keys to validate iMessage accounts. But it seems that this is able to talk directly to App
by kevincox 3y ago
Very interesting. I was under the impression that Apple used hardware keys to validate iMessage accounts. But it seems that this is able to talk directly to Apple without and Apple hardware? In the post it just says that you need to send and receive a SMS to register.
- RulerOf 3y agoI would have also made that assumption, but I have to admit I'm not surprised it doesn't. IIRC, iMessage was introduced with iOS 5, which supported iPhone 3GS. The secure enclave didn't show up until iPhone 5S which shipped with iOS 7.
- freedomben 3y agoah interesting, so Beeper's days may be numbered by when Apple drops support for older devices. But if they can grow quick enough then they'll have enough users that Apple can't quietly nail them and stuff their body into a dumpster.
- filmgirlcw 3y agoPerhaps. They didn't start including the SE with Macs until the first TouchBar Mac in 2016. So there are many millions of non-SE devices in use right now. Of course, Apple could still decide to unilaterally drop support for iMessage on older devices, but doing that risks pissing off and probably losing for life tens of millions of users to prevent, let's be realistic, several hundred thousand users (this is a paid app, this isn't free) from using iMessage on Android using this method. I wouldn't put it past Apple and other reverse-engineering routes might have to be taken but I don't think this is as easy of a "Apple will instantly shut this down" scenario as many others seem to.
- freedomben 3y agoIf it realistically stayed with just several hundred thousand users, I would agree. My suspicion though is that there will now be a rush of apps doing imessage on android or windows etc, and probably also spam on iMessage will go up which might stoke the fire a bit. I guess we'll see what happens!
- RulerOf 3y agoBlocking it might be a cat-and-mouse thing that works with heuristics, which would of course be unreliable in both directions.
- wmf 3y agoOld Macs didn't have a secure enclave so I assume this is using an old version of the protocol that was used in those days.
- jenny91 3y agoIn the related pypush repo it mentions something about hardware serial numbers used in rate-limiting, etc. So I guess they do something? But yes, I was expecting it to be based on some kind of hardware root of trust certificate system that comes from deep within the hardware and secure enclaves!