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Apple's iCloud Private Relay is Leaking Users' Real IP Addresses
MacRumors • • general
Key Points:
- Security researchers Tommy Mysk and Talal Haj Bakry discovered that Apple's iCloud Private Relay, designed to mask IP addresses in Safari, can leak users' real IPs to websites using or mimicking passkeys based on the WebAuthn standard.
- The leak occurs because WebAuthn requests are handled by the operating system's credential service, bypassing Private Relay's proxy and exposing the device's true IP address without user interaction or visible prompts.
- Additional WebKit features, such as DNS prefetching and WebTransport introduced in recent iOS versions, were also found to potentially expose users' real DNS servers and IP addresses.
- Apple is investigating the reported vulnerabilities, but since the issue stems from WebKit's architecture, some third-party browsers are also affected, prompting experts to recommend using a VPN for stronger privacy protection in the meantime.
- The researchers have created a website for users to test if their IP address is leaking through Apple's service, highlighting the ongoing privacy concerns with current implementations of iCloud Private Relay.
