Apple AirPlay Private Key Exposed, Opening Door to AirPort Express Emulators

MacRumors · Apr 10, 2011

Developer James Laird has reverse engineered the Airport Express private key and published an open source AirPort Express emulator called Shareport.

This program emulates an Airport Express for the purpose of streaming music from iTunes and compatible iPods. It implements a server for the Apple RAOP protocol.

Previously, the private key was unknown, which meant that only Apple's Airport Express or official 3rd party solutions could wirelessly stream music from iTunes or equivalent. Many existing solutions such as Rogue Amoeba's Airfoil have long been able to stream music to AirPort Express or other AirPlay devices, but not the other way around. A Hacker News commenter illumin8 spells it out:

Previously you could do this:
iTunes -- stream to --> Apple Airport Express
3rd party software -- stream to --> Apple Airport Express

Now you can do this:
iTunes -- stream to --> 3rd party software/hardware

Now it seems unlikely that any hardware manufacturers will use the unauthorized information to create AirPlay-compatible hardware products, especially when there it is possible to be an officially licensed AirPlay partner. However, this does open the door to software solutions. iTunes music , for example, could be streamed to other Macs, non-Macs, customized consoles (Xbox 360), or mobile devices with the right software. The developer originally posted the key to the VideoLan developer mailing list in case there was interest in adding that feature to a future version of VLC.

Article Link: Apple AirPlay Private Key Exposed, Opening Door to AirPort Express Emulators

aloshka · Apr 10, 2011

Should be public anyway, why can't we have cool 3rd party devices?

Satori · Apr 10, 2011

They'll change the key and force a firmware update on any airport express user who wants to update itunes.

kjs862 · Apr 10, 2011

I had recently purchased Airfoil and the app works great. I also just recently purchased an Airport Express since I didn't want to use my iPhone as a receiver all the time.

RichardBeer · Apr 10, 2011

I sense a lawsuit coming....

arn · Apr 10, 2011

Satori said:
They'll change the key and force a firmware update on any airport express user who wants to update itunes.

Are the 3rd party AirPlay speakers firmware upgradable?
http://www.apple.com/itunes/airplay/

That will break compatibility with those speakers.

arn

sniffies · Apr 10, 2011

Apple don't like the word 'expose' in any form whatsoever.

pika2000 · Apr 11, 2011

What I don't get is why can't Apple enable any iOS device (iPod Touch, iPhone, iPad) as an Airplay target device? Obviously iOS supports it as Apple TV can be a target for Airplay from iTunes.

Consultant · Apr 11, 2011

pika2000 said:
What I don't get is why can't Apple enable any iOS device (iPod Touch, iPhone, iPad) as an Airplay target device? Obviously iOS supports it as Apple TV can be a target for Airplay from iTunes.

There are apps for AirPlay.

Perhaps you have not heard of this thing call the App Store.

afd · Apr 11, 2011

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8G4 Safari/6533.18.5)

arn said:
Satori said:

They'll change the key and force a firmware update on any airport express user who wants to update itunes.

Click to expand...

Are the 3rd party AirPlay speakers firmware upgradable?
http://www.apple.com/itunes/airplay/

That will break compatibility with those speakers.

arn

The marantz one is, you have to pay $40 to uPgrade firmware to get AirPlay working at all. At least you did with early versions, not sure about current versions, AirPlay may work without upgrade with those.

Westside guy · Apr 11, 2011

Satori said:
They'll change the key and force a firmware update on any airport express user who wants to update itunes.

Unlikely - this would require the new private key be embedded in the firmware update package, which would defeat the purpose of replacing the old key.

This is a fundamental issue with DRM solutions - you, as the consumer, have to hold the private key. They (Apple) can obfuscate where that key is, but in the end it has to be accessible in some manner. It's the same thing with iTunes DRM. If someone cares enough, they can almost certainly retrieve the private key (which is how Requiem works).

I'm guessing Apple may make some half-hearted move or another; but I doubt they care all that much.

tubbymac · Apr 11, 2011

Does this open the door to streaming video too or will it only work for audio?

DrDomVonDoom · Apr 11, 2011

I can only imagine Steve Jobs hunched over his desk like in 'Pirates of Silicon Valley" and screaming "YOUR STEALING FROM ME!!!!" lol.

Otherwise awesome news.

gregorypierce · Apr 11, 2011

Westside guy said:
Unlikely - this would require the new private key be embedded in the firmware update package, which would defeat the purpose of replacing the old key.

This is a fundamental issue with DRM solutions - you, as the consumer, have to hold the private key. They (Apple) can obfuscate where that key is, but in the end it has to be accessible in some manner. It's the same thing with iTunes DRM. If someone cares enough, they can almost certainly retrieve the private key (which is how Requiem works).

I'm guessing Apple may make some half-hearted move or another; but I doubt they care all that much.

Indeed, because any company that tries to take advantage of that can almost certainly be sued by Apple with little issue.

chazwatson · Apr 11, 2011

aloshka said:
Should be public anyway, why can't we have cool 3rd party devices?

The AirPlay private key wasn't made public by Apple for the same reason the FairPlay private key wasn't-- having the private key essentially gives you access to an unencrypted stream of whatever content is encrypted by AirPlay.

pika2000 · Apr 11, 2011

Consultant said:
There are apps for AirPlay.

Perhaps you have not heard of this thing call the App Store.

Care to actually show me what app that will actually do what I was talking about?

I want to play music from iTunes on my Mac as the source, and multiple airplay devices as the target. Currently I can only play to Airport Expresses and Apple TVs (and upcoming Airplay certified speakers). I want Apple to include all iOS devices to that list of target devices.

kiljoy616 · Apr 11, 2011

Westside guy said:
Unlikely - this would require the new private key be embedded in the firmware update package, which would defeat the purpose of replacing the old key.

This is a fundamental issue with DRM solutions - you, as the consumer, have to hold the private key. They (Apple) can obfuscate where that key is, but in the end it has to be accessible in some manner. It's the same thing with iTunes DRM. If someone cares enough, they can almost certainly retrieve the private key (which is how Requiem works).

I'm guessing Apple may make some half-hearted move or another; but I doubt they care all that much.

What could they loose, but I know there be more demand for apple products if more companies jump on the band wagon. Like TV with Airplay built in, nice.

kiljoy616 · Apr 11, 2011

pika2000 said:
Care to actually show me what app that will actually do what I was talking about?
I want to play music from iTunes on my Mac as the source, and multiple airplay devices as the target. Currently I can only play to Airport Expresses and Apple TVs (and upcoming Airplay certified speakers). I want Apple to include all iOS devices to that list of target devices.

So for some unknown reason you want to send airplay from your phone to your ipad? Or have well lets see apple tv netflix send the movie to your iphone right is this it is this what your so wanting?

Maybe Android has just what your looking for?

kiljoy616 · Apr 11, 2011

afd said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8G4 Safari/6533.18.5)

The marantz one is, you have to pay $40 to uPgrade firmware to get AirPlay working at all. At least you did with early versions, not sure about current versions, AirPlay may work without upgrade with those.

Ok this makes no real sense to I figure Apple is behind it. Merantz and Denon both have upgrade and both same price. Are they for real, come on Airplay upgrade WTF. I smell Apple crazy behind it.

I guess its a software upgrade to their internal chip, but I still think its stupid, if your going to buy a 1000 plus receiver this is just dam bad PR to me.

pika2000 · Apr 11, 2011

kiljoy616 said:
So for some unknown reason you want to send airplay from your phone to your ipad? Or have well lets see apple tv netflix send the movie to your iphone right is this it is this what your so wanting?

Maybe Android has just what your looking for?

So for some unknown reason, you put a nonsense meaningless reply. Try again.

Jowl · Apr 11, 2011

pika2000 said:
What I don't get is why can't Apple enable any iOS device (iPod Touch, iPhone, iPad) as an Airplay target device? Obviously iOS supports it as Apple TV can be a target for Airplay from iTunes.

AirFrame allows sending video between iOS devices. I've sucesfully used it from iPhone to iPad

afd · Apr 11, 2011

kiljoy616 said:
Ok this makes no real sense to I figure Apple is behind it. Merantz and Denon both have upgrade and both same price. Are they for real, come on Airplay upgrade WTF. I smell Apple crazy behind it.

I guess its a software upgrade to their internal chip, but I still think its stupid, if your going to buy a 1000 plus receiver this is just dam bad PR to me.

Can't remember where, but I seem to remember reading that Apple were charging around $5 for AirPlay licensing, which makes the $40 seem even more of a rip-off. You'd think that they'd adsorb even the $5, seems like a small price to pay to make your device more desirable to all the iOS and iTunes users out there.

firestarter · Apr 11, 2011

chazwatson said:
The AirPlay private key wasn't made public by Apple for the same reason the FairPlay private key wasn't-- having the private key essentially gives you access to an unencrypted stream of whatever content is encrypted by AirPlay.

THIS

As you correctly highlight, the significance of this isn't that it enables others to implement 3rd party Airplay clients for innocent playback... it's that it allows Airplay-based software rippers to be constructed.

Want an un-encrypted copy of that iTMS rental movie? Stream it to an airplay-ripper you've downloaded off the 'net, and it'll be re-compressed in non-DRM form for you to play back whenever you wish.

This is the biggest worry for Apple. They can't raise lawsuits against free software apps hosted outside the US in the same way they could block the selling of non-licenced hardware in the US.

macsmurf · Apr 11, 2011

firestarter said:
Want an un-encrypted copy of that iTMS rental movie? Stream it to an airplay-ripper you've downloaded off the 'net, and it'll be re-compressed in non-DRM form for you to play back whenever you wish.

Can't you just do this anyway with some other kind of ripper?

harry20larry · Apr 11, 2011

Been wanting this for a while. I have a windows PC just doing nothing, if I can turn it into an Airport Express like device, can have music going throughout the house.

Apple AirPlay Private Key Exposed, Opening Door to AirPort Express Emulators

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