Hey, HN. While I was helping a friend set up their new iPhone, I noticed that they were prompted to upgrade to a newer version of iOS. When I checked my own phone, I saw that the update had been released more than two weeks earlier — but I was still stuck on the old version even though I had the iOS "Automatic Updates" feature enabled.
As a result, I started working on this project to make it easy to get notified whenever Apple releases a new iOS update. It can send notifications via Discord, Email, Signal, Slack, SMS, and Telegram.
It's free and open source. There are even a couple of no-setup options (just scan a QR code or text a toll-free number) for people who want to try it out first or who don't want to self-host it themselves.
Whether you care about security and want critical bug fixes fast; or you get excited about new features and want to try them first; or both — my hope is that this little tool can help.
It does. Signal supports runtime permissions[1] and it requests them dynamically while you are using the app (e.g. the camera permission prompt appears the first time you try to take a picture).
Just one additional note that might not be immediately clear from the advisory: Exploiting this requires the attacker to first manually place malware (a malicious JavaScript file) on your computer or on a Samba network share that your computer is already connected to.
If the solution to censorship is to constantly switch to new hosts, it would be even easier to do this via a VPN (which wouldn't require you to rebuild your social graph at all, unlike a federated endpoint switch).
If the more straightforward solution (VPN) isn't a panacea for censorship, then federation isn't either.
Let's say I have an account on a federated server and a censor then blocks my ability to access that server from my home country.
While it's true that my friends on other servers might be able to send messages that will arrive on my chosen server, that distinction isn't very meaningful because I am unable to connect and retrieve those messages.
I wouldn't be communicating with my friends until I switched to a new server and rebuilt my social graph.
An aspiring censor could also "easily connect to the broader network" and masquerade as a federated server in order to discover others. This process could even be automated.
Federated services also require an identifier, and this identifier usually indicates where the user's account is located and how to connect with them (e.g. [email protected]). As people share these identifiers, the aspiring censor can just keep adding new entries to the blacklist.
As a result, I started working on this project to make it easy to get notified whenever Apple releases a new iOS update. It can send notifications via Discord, Email, Signal, Slack, SMS, and Telegram.
It's free and open source. There are even a couple of no-setup options (just scan a QR code or text a toll-free number) for people who want to try it out first or who don't want to self-host it themselves.
Whether you care about security and want critical bug fixes fast; or you get excited about new features and want to try them first; or both — my hope is that this little tool can help.
Thanks for taking a look!