Breaking the Mirror – A Look at Apple’s New iPhone Remote Control Feature (38c3)

Exploring the security of the new iPhone Mirroring feature as well as the current threat model of the iOS ecosystem The tight integration between devices is something you only get in Apple’s Continuity ecosystem. It enables seamless interaction between devices, such as using your iPhone as a webcam for your Mac and even letting an iPad act as a second screen with stylus input. All of this relies on Apple’s Continuity framework, a system that builds on local wireless protocols such as Bluetooth and Wi-Fi to communicate among a user’s devices. The interactions enabled between the devices result in a complex threat model that researchers have started to explore over the past years. This summer, Apple newly introduced iPhone Mirroring, a feature that allows users to remote control their locked iPhone wirelessly from their Mac, further blurring the security boundaries in the ecosystem. How does this new feature work? Are the security and privacy checks introduced for iPhone Mirroring sufficient or is it possible to trick the system? What do they protect against and how might this differ from how iOS devices are used in practice? In this talk, you will get demos and explanations of bypasses found in early versions of the iOS 18 beta along with an explanation of why and how they work. Licensed to the public under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 about this event: https://events.ccc.de/congress/2024/hub/event/breaking-the-mirror-a-look-at-apple-s-new-iphone-remote-control-feature/