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No, the same point can't be made against Apple. Apple encrypt WiFi passwords and never store them in plain text – not on their servers and not on the device. T
by gilgoomesh 13y ago
No, the same point can't be made against Apple.
Apple encrypt WiFi passwords and never store them in plain text – not on their servers and not on the device. The encryption requires your login password to decrypt which Apple also don't store in plain text on their servers (although it is accessible on the device if you don't use a PIN or password, it is not backed up to iCloud).
The reason why this allegation is levelled against Google: they don't encrypt backups and they don't encrypt WiFi passwords on the device.
A little more specifically about iOS WiFi passwords: the Keychain (which is where WiFi passwords are backed up on iOS and the Mac) is AES encrypted and requires your login password (or your Apple ID password) to decrypt. Unless Apple is also stealing plain text versions of your login passwords (there's no indication that they are) then it is not possible for Apple to read your WiFi password. Yes, theoretically, they could steal your Apple ID password too but there's no indication that they do (and they've talked about the exact security on Apple IDs following the developer.apple.com breach recently).
- MichaelGG 13y agoIf you lose your Apple ID password and reset it, are all your WiFi passwords gone?
- lutusp 13y agoThat depends on the meaning of "reset". If you create a new password for the same user ID, then no -- the stored WiFi passwords are retained. If you create a new user ID and password, then yes.
- MichaelGG 13y agoOK so in the case of a "normal" lost password then how is it that it's safe on Apple's servers? That is, if it's not encrypted with a key derived from your password, then Apple can still decrypt.
- lutusp 13y ago> OK so in the case of a "normal" lost password then how is it that it's safe on Apple's servers? In a word, it isn't. The new password is no more nor less safe than the old one. Or are you asking about the data, not the password? Pretty much the same answer.
- MichaelGG 13y agoOK, so Apple is in the same boat as Google. If you can reset your password and still access your data, then it wasn't encrypted in any meaningful way.
- gilgoomesh 13y agoActually, your passwords are gone if Apple resets your Apple ID. If Apple resets your Apple ID password and you restart your device (remember: the Apple ID is kept decrypted in RAM while the device is running), you lose the entire keychain and must re-enter all passwords.