A hack allows you to send additional messages and data using the "Find" network (as in Find My iPhone), according to a security researcher.
Security researcher Fabian Bräunlein found a way to leverage Apple's search network to activate it as a generic data transmission mechanism, allowing devices not connected to the Internet to upload arbitrary data using nearby Apple devices to send it.
Network Find uses the base of the iOS device to act as nodes and transfer location data. Bräunlein explains in his lengthy search documentation that it is possible to emulate the way an AirTag connects to the search network and submits its location. The AirTag sends its location using an encrypted communication, so that when the data is replaced by a message, it is hidden by the encryption of the transmission.
Bräunlein's demo shows how text strings can be sent from a microcontroller using custom firmware via the search network. The text was received by a custom app on the Mac and showed the data sent.
