iPhones Be Chatty

You'd think a great company like Apple would care about my privacy BUT NO.

 Behold, my iPhone:


You see what's going on here?  That's my iPhone there.  Apple_57:8d:89.  (Filtered using wlan.sa == f4:f1:5a:57:8d:89 if you're curious.)  And look what it's doing.  IT'S PROBING.  The iPhone of a respected security do-gooder like myself is out there for any hooligan to see.

Do I look like the type of person who wants the world to know that I used my phone at the MGM Signature in Las Vegas?  (Well, maybe.  I could've prevented the phone from probing by just tapping on the SSID instead of typing it in.  But typing in SSIDs on iPhones/iPads is a neat trick for keeping stinky captive portal splash pages from coming up over and over again on guest WLANs.)  Or on the VerizonWiFi network at Staples Center?  (Which added a captive portal and lost A TON of guest connections, thus harming overall channel performance for all WiFi users in the arena.)  Why would I want that?  A no-dogooder with a WiFi Pineapple could be all over my iPhone attacking me as we speak.

I'm a nice guy.  I like people around me to be happy.  Do you think I want to be sullying the wireless channel with a bunch of low rate (1 Mbps) frames (of 179 bytes!)?  I'm messing everyone else up!  I want to be the hero, not the villain.

These chatty devices have to go.  I'm going back to my Nokia candy bar phone any minute now.  Any.  Minute.  Now.

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Comments

  1. UnknownApril 3, 2014 at 1:43 PM

    Is this probing because the phone is constantly looking for all the networks you have previously connected to and saved?

    If you "forget" all the networks, would it stop the probing?

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownJuly 14, 2014 at 8:00 AM

    What's happening is the device isn't on a WiFi network so it's trying to find something to connect to. If you're not somewhere that you plan on using WiFi you can turn it off to disable this probing. Once it's connected to a WiFi it will also probe when you open the WiFi settings when you go to pick a new WiFi.

    ReplyDelete

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