Ask HN: How are fake AirPods spoofing the special interface on iOS,why no auth?

3 points by unknownaccount ↗ HN
I recently came to own the highest end fake AirPods Pro on the market apparently which sell for the equivalent of $49 in USD in China and sell for $60-100 in US on the black market. They work surprisingly well, the quality is good (Not excellent/amazing like the real ones). The little charging box works almost perfectly, the device even appears in Find My and has working sound alert.

From the outside appearance this thing looks 99% like the real one (I’ll post pics in a seperate comment). For those who don’t know, AirPods get a special interface in iOS, special screens that no regular Bluetooth headset gets. a white box appears with an animated AirPods Pro sprite, it says the connection status when you pair to your device, battery status etc. AirPods also have a special interface in Bluetooth -> My Devices -> Info that shows all sorts of information about them, which the fake emulates perfectly. Everything works in the software except the ear tip test always passes and it says Coverage Expired where it should say Limited Warranty. Now doesn’t it seem a little weird how good these fakes are? An average person would clearly be fooled into thinking these were real if they didn’t know what to look for. It begs the question why isn’t there any sort of secure authentication method for the headphones to attest their legitimacy before identifying themselves as “AirPods Pro” in iOS in all its native interfaces, and if there is one-how was it bypassed (as of the latest iOS 16 u3 beta)? It’s actually kind of scary that a fake device was able to invoke the legitimate AirPods interfaces in my iPhone when I connected it. What are your thoughts on this? Is it okay that fake AirPods are able to identify themselves as real ones to iOS?

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