iPhone Private Wi-Fi Address feature didn't work until iOS 17.1

[Jan]

iPhone's Wi-Fi privacy-enhancing feature didn't work for 3 years

Apple released iOS 14 in 2020, which included a feature that hid Wi-Fi MAC address when devices iPhones connected to a network, but unbeknownst to many, the feature never worked as intended.

The Cupertino-based tech company released iOS 17.1 on Wednesday, 26 October 2023, and with the update, Apple addressed a vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2023-42846, which prevented the feature from working.

 

[lkpat]

Yep, and nowhere was this more evident than on those time limited free WiFi services like airports and coffee shops. Try restarting and reconnecting and it still knows who you are.

Or on your home router where you could assign a static IP in DHCP despite this being enabled.

 

[Dolby]

Ah I was hopeful that with this update they’d stop the stupid limitation on iPhone 13 regarding Standby - but it’s still rather stupid and pointless

 

[backstreetboy]

Yeah and Android doesn’t even have the feature.

 

[Dolby]

Yeah and Android doesn’t even have the feature.

Standby is just a slight variation of Always On? Or ?

 

[backstreetboy]

Standby is just a slight variation of Always On? Or ?

Article is about hiding MAC addresses.

 

[Adenoid Hynkel]

Yeah and Android doesn’t even have the feature.

What are you on about? Randomized MAC allocation has been available for years in Android.

 

[Dolby]

Article is about hiding MAC addresses.

Sorry - I thought it mentioned 17.1 as well?

Why do never ever stay on topic - but you want everyone else to remain 100% on topic? Or is that only when you don’t have a come back or reply?

It’s like you prefer to sweep negativity on Apple under the rugs and make sure it’s never spoken about

 

[backstreetboy]

Sorry - I thought it mentioned 17.1 as well?

Why do never ever stay on topic - but you want everyone else to remain 100% on topic? Or is that only when you don’t have a come back or reply?

It’s like you prefer to sweep negativity on Apple under the rugs and make sure it’s never spoken about

Still complaining about a feature your phone never shipped with?

 

[Dolby]

Still complaining about a feature your phone never shipped with?

I think I’m more concerned that people can’t think and feel the need to justify every stupid decision or even ban discussions around it

 

[SauRoNZA]

Wonder what makes it not work in specific cases as I’ve definitely seen it work both in my corporate and personal networks and needed to forcibly override it.