The Beijing institute developed the technique to crack an iPhone’s encrypted device log to identify the numbers and emails of senders who share AirDrop content, the city’s judicial bureau said in an online post. Police have identified multiple suspects via that method, the agency said, without disclosing if anyone was arrested. “It improves the efficiency and accuracy of case-solving and prevents the spread of inappropriate remarks as well as potential bad influences,” the bureau said.
Further read: https://sfj.beijing.gov.cn/sfj/sfdt/ywdt82/flfw93/436331732/index.html
Read the article. The exploit was found by the state actors not created by them. Apple is ultimately responsible for the mishap due to the insecure design of the aforementioned feature.
Even though China partially had a hand in the creation of this flaw according to the history of the feature.
And yes, Apple has been a constant feature on the news for such privacy leaks of late. You just haven’t been paying attention.
If state actor would create it it would be a backdoor. Exploits are by definition bugs/security issues that can be… well, exploited and state-level actors are really good at finding them. Still, if it takes resources of state actor to find an exploit I don’t think it’s a massive L. Yes, it’s totally possible they had some other serious security issues recently and I haven’t been paying attention. That’s why I’m asking.