A flaw in Apple’s new “mirroring” feature could expose your use of iPhone apps on your work Mac to your company’s IT department, researchers found in a new report released Tuesday.
Cybersecurity researchers at Sevco Security have identified a flaw that allows personal apps to become part of a company’s software inventory when mirroring is used. Data within the app is not shared, but the app itself may expose private or personal information about employees, for example certain types of health apps or dating apps.
Mirroring allows iPhone owners to use their smartphone from their Mac, with a “mirrored” iPhone screen popping up on their Mac screen and iPhone notifications also appearing on the Mac. When mirroring is in operation, the user’s iPhone itself remains locked. Apple promises that “no one else can access it or use it to see what you’re doing,” but if you’re running it on your work computer. That’s not necessarily the case.
This bug occurs because an iOS app mirrored to your work Mac sets the same app metadata as a native macOS app. Apple’s mirroring feature requires an iPhone with iOS 18 installed, a Mac computer with macOS Sequoia, and Apple’s proprietary Apple Silicon chips in these devices. This bug is less of an issue on personal Macs, but it’s still not great for device privacy.
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“When Sevco saw a personal iOS application reported being installed on a Mac device, we believed it was a limited, one-time bug in our processing or upstream customer inventory provider.” said the Sevco report, adding: This is not a bug; in fact, multiple customers and multiple upstream software vendors have reported personal iOS apps on Mac devices. This problem was new and global. ”
The company discovered the bug on September 27th and reported it to Apple on the same day. On October 3, Apple reportedly told Sevco that it was working on a fix for the issue and would include it in a future update.
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This bug may violate personal privacy and data collection laws in some regions. Until a fix is released, those concerned about personal privacy at work may want to avoid mirroring their iPhone to their Mac at work.
PCMag has reached out to Apple for comment.
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