London - AFP
Apple's new voice-controlled personal assistant software, Siri, could be adapted to run on Android handsets after developers discovered a way around restrictions designed to limit it to iPhone 4S users. According to The Telegraph, the hack means that the servers that process the questions users ask devices other than the iPhone 4S could access Siri. It was discovered by Applidium, a French mobile software company that reverse-engineered the protocol Siri uses to communicate with its servers. The firm found a way to intercept and decrypt the data by forging security certificates, allowing a detailed examination of the data format. However, the requests include a unique "key" for each iPhone 4S. To exploit the flaw, each Android device would have to find a way to impersonate Apple's new smart phone Applidium said. So Apple could quite easily block any third party app offering unauthorised access to the Siri server because all its users would probably have to use the same key.