China’s state-backed Beijing Wangshendongjian Forensic Appraisal Institute says they’ve created a tool to analyze iPhone logs, revealing phone numbers and emails from AirDrop.
The institute says that they conducted this research after Apple AirDrop was used to send “inappropriate” comments in the Beijing subway.
“After preliminary investigation, the police found that the suspect used the AirDrop function of the iPhone to anonymously spread the inappropriate information in public places,” reads an announcement by the Chinese government.
“Due to the anonymity and difficulty of tracking AirDrop, some netizens have begun to imitate this behavior. Therefore, it is necessary to find the sending source and determine its identity as soon as possible to avoid negative impacts.”
The research institute says the sender’s device name, email address, and mobile phone number are hashed in the iOS device logs.
Using rainbow tables, the researchers claim to have been able to dehash these fields to gain access to the sender’s information.
China says they have already used this forensics ability to “identify multiple suspects involved in the case.”
