AirDrop and Quick Share Flaws Let Nearby Attackers Trigger Crashes and Bypass Checks
Jun 30, 2026
Vulnerability / Wireless Security
Two researchers have found six security flaws in AirDrop and Quick Share , the wireless features that beam files between nearby devices with no cables or shared network. An attacker within wireless range, with just a laptop and no prior connection, can crash the sharing service on a Mac or iPhone set to receive from anyone, with no tap or prompt. The same research found Quick Share flaws that bypass Samsung's session checks and trigger a potentially exploitable crash in Google's Windows app. The two features run inside an ecosystem of more than five billion active Apple and Android devices, though the tested bugs hit specific implementations and versions. The work, laid out in a new research paper by Arash Ale Ebrahim and Nils Ole Tippenhauer of the CISPA Helmholtz Center for Information Security, is the first to pull both stacks apart side by side, above the radio layer, where discovery becomes session handling, parsing, and trust decisions. The fixes have alre...
