Millions of Apple Airplay-Enabled Devices Can Be Hacked via Wi-Fi

WIRED

29-04-2025

Lily Hay Newman Andy Greenberg Apr 29, 2025 8:30 AM Researchers reveal a collection of bugs known as AirBorne that would allow any hacker on the same Wi-Fi network as a third-party AirPlay-enabled device to surreptitiously run their own code on it. Illustration:Apple's AirPlay feature enables iPhones and Macbooks to seamlessly play music or show photos and videos on other Apple devices or third-party speakers and TVs that integrate the protocol. Now newly uncovered security flaws in AirPlay mean that those same wireless connections could allow hackers to move within a network just as easily, spreading malicious code from one infected device to another. Apple products are known for regularly receiving fixes, but given how rarely some smart-home devices are patched, it's likely that these wirelessly enabled footholds for malware, across many of the hundreds of models of AirPlay-enabled devices, will persist for years to come.
On Tuesday, researchers from the cybersecurity firm Oligo revealed what they're calling AirBorne, a collection of vulnerabilities affecting AirPlay, Apple's proprietary radio-based protocol for local wireless communication. Bugs in Apple's AirPlay software development kit (SDK) for third-party devices would allow hackers to hijack gadgets like speakers, receivers, set-top boxes, or smart TVs if they're on the same Wi-Fi network as the hacker's machine. Another set of AirBorne vulnerabilities would have allowed hackers to exploit AirPlay-enabled Apple devices too, Apple told Oligo, though these bugs have been patched in updates over the last several months, and Apple tells WIRED that those bugs could have only been exploited when users changed default AirPlay settings.
Those Apple devices aside, Oligo's chief technology officer and cofounder, Gal Elbaz, estimates that potentially vulnerable third-party AirPlay-enabled devices number in the tens of millions. 'Because AirPlay is supported in such a wide variety of devices, there are a lot that will take years to patch—or they will never be patched,' Elbaz says. 'And it's all because of vulnerabilities in one piece of software that affects everything.'
Despite Oligo working with Apple for months to patch the AirBorne bugs in all affected devices, the Tel-Aviv-based security firm warns that the AirBorne vulnerabilities in many third-party gadgets are likely to remain hackable unless users act to update them. If a hacker can get onto the same Wi-Fi network as those vulnerable devices—whether by hacking into another computer on a home or corporate network or by simply connecting to the same coffeeshop or airport Wi-Fi—they can surreptitiously take over these gadgets. From there, they could use this control to maintain a stealthy point of access, hack other targets on the network, or add the machines to a botnet of infected, coordinated machines under the hacker's control.
Oligo also notes that many of the vulnerable devices have microphones and could be turned into listening devices for espionage. The researchers did not go so far as to create proof-of-concept malware for any particular target that would demonstrate that trick.
Oligo says it warned Apple about its AirBorne findings in the late fall and winter of last year, and Apple responded in the months since then by pushing out security updates. The researchers collaborated with Apple to test and validate the fixes for Macs and other Apple products.
Apple tells WIRED that it has also created patches that are available for impacted third-party devices. The company emphasizes, though, that there are limitations to the attacks that would be possible on AirPlay-enabled devices as a result of the bugs, because an attacker must be on the same Wi-Fi network as a target to exploit them. Apple adds that while there is potentially some user data on devices like TVs and speakers, it is typically very limited.
Below is a video of the Oligo researchers demonstrating their AirBorne hacking technique to take over an AirPlay-enabled Bose speaker to show their company's logo. (The researchers say they didn't intend to single out Bose, but just happened to have one of the company's speakers on hand for testing.) Bose did not immediately respond to WIRED's request for comment.
The AirBorne vulnerabilities Oligo found also affect CarPlay, the radio protocol used to connect to vehicles' dashboard interfaces. Oligo warns that this means hackers could hijack a car's automotive computer, known as its head unit, in any of more than 800 CarPlay-enabled car and truck models. In those car-specific cases, though, the AirBorne vulnerabilities could only be exploited if the hacker is able to pair their own device with the head unit via Bluetooth or a USB connection, which drastically restricts the threat of CarPlay-based vehicle hacking.
The AirPlay SDK flaws in home media devices, by contrast, may present a more practical vulnerability for hackers seeking to hide on a network, whether to install ransomware or carry out stealthy espionage, all while hiding on devices that are often forgotten by both consumers and corporate or government network defenders. 'The amount of devices that were vulnerable to these issues, that's what alarms me,' says Oligo researcher Uri Katz. 'When was the last time you updated your speaker?'
The researchers originally started thinking about this property of AirPlay, and ultimately discovered the AirBorne vulnerabilities, while working on a different project analyzing vulnerabilities that could allow an attacker to access internal services running on a target's local network from a malicious website. In that earlier research, Oligo's hackers found they could defeat the fundamental protections baked into every web browser that are meant to prevent websites from having this type of invasive access on other people's internal networks.
While playing around with their discovery, the researchers realized that one of the services they could access by exploiting the bugs without authorization on a target's systems was AirPlay. The crop of AirBorne vulnerabilities revealed today is unconnected to the previous work, but was inspired by AirPlay's properties as a service built to sit open and at the ready for new connections.
And the fact that the researchers found flaws in the AirPlay SDK means that vulnerabilities are lurking in hundreds of models of devices—and possibly more, given that some manufacturers incorporate the AirPlay SDK without notifying Apple and becoming 'certified' AirPlay devices.
'When third-party manufacturers integrate Apple technologies like AirPlay via an SDK, obviously Apple no longer has direct control over the hardware or the patching process,' says Patrick Wardle, CEO of the Apple device-focused security firm DoubleYou. 'As a result, when vulnerabilities arise and third-party vendors fail to update their products promptly—or at all—it not only puts users at risk but could also erode trust in the broader Apple ecosystem."