Apple's video and audio streaming protocol, AirPlay, has had its private encryption key cracked which means in the future you might be able to get software, homebrew and open source alike, to do what requires proprietary or licensed devices like an Apple Airport Express or Apple TV to do today. James Laird is the one who reverse engineered the keys and has created an emulator called Shairport:

My girlfriend moved house, and her Airport Express no longer made it with her wireless access point. I figured it'd be easy to find an ApEx emulator - there are several open source apps out there to play to them. However, I was disappointed to find that Apple used a public-key crypto scheme, and there's a private key hiding inside the ApEx. So I took it apart (I still have scars from opening the glued case!), dumped the ROM, and reverse engineered the keys out of it. So, here is ShairPort, an open-source (Perl/C) replacement.

Finding a hardware box that's Wi-Fi enabled, has the appropriate audio or A/V output ports, and can be loaded with Shairport enabled software probably won't be easy, especially immediately, but the hacking community is nothing if not ingenious, so who knows what we'll see down the road? Any requests?

[mafipulations via MacRumors]

Interested in how to enable data protection on your iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad? The good news is that if you use a passcode, iOS 4 data protections protects the hardware encryption keys on your device, making email, attachments, and 3rd party apps (if they enable it) much more secure. The bad news is, if you updated your iPhone 3GS, iPod touch 3, or original iPad from iOS 3 to iOS 4, data protection might not have been turned on even with the passcode. Not to worry, we'll walk you through all the possibilities, after the break!

[Apple KB via TidBITS]

How to set a passcode

If you haven't got a passcode lock set up on your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad, that's the place to start.

• How to set up a passcode lock

Bonus Tip: You can set your passcode lock to automatically erase your device after 10 failed attempts. That's great if you ever lose your device but if you have young children who can get ahold of it, you might find yourself restoring your wiped device with frustrating frequency. Security is constantly at war with convenience, make your choice.

How to set a stronger passcode

With iOS 4 you can switch the passcode from simple 4-digit numeric to full on alphanumeric for seriously stronger protection.

• From the Settings: General: Passcode Lock screen...
• Switch the Simple Passcode toggle to OFF
• Enter your current 4-digit numeric passcode to verify
• Enter a new, strong alphanumeric passcode

A combination of numbers, letters, and symbols is good, pseudorandom is even better but the difficulty in remembering it probably outweighs any benefit.

How to check for data protection

Now that your passcode is enabled, check to make sure you have data protection on. (It should be on by default for all iPhone 4, iPod touch 4, and iPad 2 devices, but if you updated your iPhone 3GS, iPod touch 3, or original iPad from iOS 3 to iOS 4 it might not be.)

• From the Settings: General: Passcode Lock screen...
• Scroll down to the very bottom and look for the text "Data protection is enabled"

If it's there, you're good to go. If not, keep reading!

How to enable data protection if it's not on by default

Remember, this is only for iPhone 3GS (2009), iPod touch 3 (2009), and original iPad (2010) if "Data protection enabled" isn't showing up on the Settings screen.

• Restore your device from backup

Make sure you backup your device before restoring, then choose restore from backup to get all your data back onto your device. Once it's done, sync and then check the Setting screen again to make sure data protection is now enabled.

Phew!

If you have any questions or any other data protection tips, leave them in the comments!

Tips of the day will range from beginner-level 101 to advanced-level ninjary. If you already know this tip, keep the link handy as a quick way to help a friend. If you have a tip of your own you’d like to suggest, add them to the comments or send them in to dailytips@tipb.com. (If it’s especially awesome and previously unknown to us, we’ll even give ya a reward…)

Wired.com talks to Jonathan Zdziarski, iPhone developer, hacker, forensics teacher, finder of the iPhone kill switch, creator of the AMBER alert app, about the iPhone 3GS' new hardware encryption, recently touted as giving consumers "enterprise-class" security. His take? It's implemented so poorly it can be cracked in two minutes, “like storing all your secret messages right next to the secret decoder ring”.

To steal an iPhone’s disk image, hackers can use popular jailbreaking tools such as Red Sn0w and Purple Ra1n to install a custom kernel on the phone. Then, the thief can install an Secure Shell (SSH) client to port the iPhone’s raw disk image across SSH onto a computer.

We've heard before that Jailbreaking strips away security layers on the iPhone, though that's been in the context of the users own device. This is using the Jailbreak process to actively get at another device's data.

Is Apple going to change the way they implement their hardware-based iPhone 3GS encryption in light of this? Can the current model be made more robust? And what, if any, changes made to keep bad guys out of the iPhone will effect users who simply want to gain access to their own iPhones?

[Thanks to Antony for the tip!]

TidBITS has an interesting write-up on the various security features of iPhone 3.0 in general, and the 256-bit AES hardware encryption of iPhone 3GS in particular, and how combined together:

consumers can now experience enterprise-class security.

They cover passcode lock, data erase, remote wipe, lack of insecure external data cards, frequent and easy to install software updates/security patches, and (encrypted) backups that can restore your data if your device is accidentally wiped. Definitely worth a read if you tend towards the security conscious.

iPhone OS 3.0 is the gift that just keeps on giving, this time revealing features in iTunes 8.1 we hadn't seen before. Now, when you hook an iPhone running the 3.0 beta 1 software up, under the Summary tab you have a new option: Encrypt iPhone backup.

Checking off the option opens a pop-up window for you to enter your password.

We're not sure yet what form of encryption Apple is using, though the Steve Gibson is us hopes it's something with a really, really strong security focus. Especially for those in enterprise or government who might have a need for it.

(And when the time comes, using a really gnarly password like the kind GRC.com's perfect passwords generates would be a great idea for the truly security conscious.)