pvraj

Derisking an unsupported/outdated Apple Watch for offline-only use

Purpose

An old Apple Watch Series 4 no longer receives security updates; the last I can see here was 10.6.1. Over time this leaves the watch open to more unpatched vulnerabilities that later models are patched for. But we can still make use of the unique hardware (heart rate, EKG) and fitness tracking features to get utility out of the device. This post describes how I reduced security risks on my watch to give it new life.

The TLDR:

• remove the apple watch from your current/personal Apple ID, unpair it from your personal iPhone, and factory erase it
• create a dummy Apple ID; use an old throwaway iPhone that has been factory erased; pair it to the watch; do the 1 time setup for EKG
• Keep wifi/bluetooth/location services off; keep the watch in airplane mode

almas

Summary

Notes to install Ubuntu 22.04.4LTS (Upgraded to 24.04LTS) up and running on my 2017 MacBook Pro 15 inch (MacBookPro14,3).

Now everything except the TouchID (Fingerprint), Suspend and Hibernation seems to work for me.

About Ubuntu 24.04LTS: I tried to install Ubuntu 24.04 and didn't have success. There was a crash issue during installation. https://bugs.launchpad.net/subiquity/+bug/2065310 But I installed 22.04 and upgraded it to the 24.04LTS later and it working same as 22.04.4.

Useful References (not mentioned in the text)

czardoz

import gevent
import gevent.monkey
gevent.monkey.patch_all()

from gevent.pywsgi import WSGIServer
from flask import Flask


app = Flask(__name__)
app.debug = True