Eli5: piracy of hardware auth software.

247 views

I’ve recently been puzzled about how manufacturers of pirated hardware can circumvent proprietary software and appear legit to an authentication server. Think fake AirPods appearing as legit on the iPhone. Or Sony headphones being able to register as legit on their app. Or fake smartwatches connecting to legit servers. And so on.

How come a manufacturer of cheap products with very little quality control or budget can manage to basically defeat a big corporation in making their products appear as legit?

In: 8

4 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

“manufacturer of cheap products with very little quality control or budget”

Don’t assume this. Some counterfeits come off of the same assembly line as the real deal. The way it works is pretty simple; legit company orders let’s say 10,000 pieces and they decide to produce 12,000. Retail markup is often three times the manufacturing cost or more so they still make money selling stuff at a discount.

It’s often called “third shift” or “ghost shift”

You are viewing 1 out of 4 answers, click here to view all answers.