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I don't see any reason why Apple Pay would use IP geolocation like that when it's running on a device that has GPS.



Fraud detection happens on the server side. The IP address is more reliable than GPS, because the client can fake GPS at any time.


But Apple Pay doesn't require internet (on the phone).


> I don't see any reason why Apple Pay would use IP geolocation like that when it's running on a device that has GPS.

One reason is that GPS doesn't work well (or at all) indoors, through cell-tower geolocation should work well enough for that case.


A compromised device can send a false location or the user may have disabled location. Geolocation has relatively predictable failures.


> I don't see any reason why Apple Pay would use IP geolocation like that when it's running on a device that has GPS.

I don't think contactless Apple Pay actually uses device geo[1] for authorization, but it's still worth noting that iOS devices without cell connectivity (ie WiFi-only iPads) don't have GPS anyway.

You can use Apple Pay on websites in Safari, though, which IIRC doesn't require location permissions to work.

1. You have to be able to use it in the same places you'd use a normal card, which means you can't rely on network connectivity of any kind.


Some Visa cards do [1] now, https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FQyVcUHXEAMSKbt?format=jpg&name=... and can refuse authorisation if it's not sent.

Apple's statement was "to prevent the sharing of fraud prevention assessments with your payment card network, you may select another card". I removed my Visa cards from Apple Pay.


I’d never come across that before, but quickly looking at the statement from Apple it seems like this only applies to browser and in-app purchases, not contactless transactions where you’re using your phone in lieu of a physical card:

"For cards with certain enhanced fraud prevention, when you attempt an online or in-app transaction, your device will evaluate information about your Apple ID, device, and location (if you have enabled Location Services), to develop fraud prevention assessments, which are used by Apple to identify and prevent fraud."


GPS can be easily spoofed.

Back in the university days, we (me + a few friends) used to get some radios and antennas to create a signal stronger than the one coming from satellites. It was always fun when the semester started and all freshmen were using Google Maps to navigate through the campus, but the map always showed their location in North Korea. Good ol' times.


I thought GPS worked by triangulation? How did you use one transmitter to specifically misdirect receivers to believing they were in North Korea?


> some radios and antennas

Still an impressive feat.


I'm calling shenanigans. I used to work in a lab where we had GPS repeaters to test consumer equipment. That alone costs big bucks. And, we had the FAA come down on us big time, because our GPS repeater broadcast outside the building too far and we got into some hot water.

If you were spoofing GPS campus wide over 1.544 GHz and had all your GPS sentences correct, with simple radios and antennas... and you hadn't got in trouble with Uncle Charlie or the FAA....


Just for clarification, it was not campus wide, only a small part between some institutes. Also, the hardware was not consumer grade thanks to the electrical engineering, geodesy and geoinformatics labs.

Still, it was illegal and could get everyone expelled, so I wouldn't do it again.


Spoofing GPS is trivial. Getting caught or not is a toss of the coin


Cheating the location on my phone is gravy.

Broadcasting an RF signal to spoof GPS (and especially across a campus), that my friend, is not trivial or cheap.


> not trivial or cheap

From your previous comment, it sounds like your experience may have been from a while ago? In 2022, it is fairly trivial and cheap: https://github.com/osqzss/gps-sdr-sim

I can not ;^) personally confirm that this works with a HackRF, which is like $300, but probably also with any other reasonable tx-capable sdr.


Trying to set up an alternate 3d volume of GPS space sounds very difficult.

But broadcasting a loud signal that tells everyone in range that they are at the same exact point doesn't seem too hard to me. Couldn't that even be as simple as replaying a single-antenna recording taken somewhere else?


Yes exactly.

Doesn't work well with some receivers that cache data from the real network and stay locked onto the much weaker real signal. But works with most receivers.




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