this post was submitted on 11 Dec 2023
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Proprietary, closed source, third-party software that hasn’t been audited by a third party, that’s hooking into another proprietary protocol without the owner of said protocol’s approval.
Sounds to me like Apple fixed a security vulnerability they were exploiting to gain access to the platform. Honestly it reminds me of Microsoft and AOL with the AIM and MSN Messenger wars. I believe AIM used a buffer overflow on purpose for authentication, despite it being a serious security vulnerability.
Of course Apple doesn't want others to access the iMessage protocol. It's part of their walled garden. They can claim it's a secure protocol because they have full control over it. An application like Beeper gaining access undermines this.
Beeper doesn't access some sort of global repository of messages, but we've no idea what Beeper does with the conversations that are had via their clients. With iMessages you trust Apple, feel about that how you will, with Beeper you trust whoever is in charge of that.
Beeper is never going to last anyway. If they manage to regain access to iMessages, Apple will just update the protocol to reject them again. With Apple implementing RCS there's not really any point in applying legal pressure on Apple to open up their platform either.
Claiming their protocol is "security by obscurity" would not be the win for them you think it is.