Petition calls for Apple to resume updates for discontinued AirPort routers

The AirBorne vulnerability disclosed on Tuesday affects millions of products, including Apple's discontinued and fan-favorite AirPort routers. A petition hopes to change that.

While the Oligo report didn't discuss AirPort routers directly, the discontinued products are affected by AirBorne. The vulnerability can lead to wormable, zero-click exploits that can infect any connected device on a network with malware.

According to a petition filed on change.org by IT professional and developer Gary Longsine, AirPort routers that are still in use today will be rendered immediately obsolete without updates. Apple discontinued the routers in 2018 and provided the last firmware update in June 2019.

The petitioner argues that while other modern devices can be updated to patch the AirBorne threat, AirPort routers will likely never be updated. Longsine suggests the routers are still used widely because of their ease of use, performance, and durability.

Apple has issued patches for much older machines in the past if a problem is bad enough. There's a chance Apple will provide a patch to the most recent AirPort Express and AirPort Extreme models, petition or not.

Unfortunately, we're not expecting a patch.

Apple's responsibility

There aren't any numbers available to suggest how many active AirPort routers there are, but it is likely not an insignificant number. However, Apple may not consider it enough of an issue to address it with time and labor costs.

AirPort Extreme and Time Capsule are still useful products even without updates

Apple's AirPort Express, AirPort Extreme, and Time Capsule, especially the last models, aren't exactly dinosaurs. AirPort Express is Wi-Fi 4, but it is also the only one with an AirPlay audio bridge feature. And, it works really well, still.

AirPort Express may be old, but they have multiple Ethernet ports, USB port for attaching storage or a printer, and can achieve 500 megabits per second speeds. That's still faster than the average US home internet connection.

The Time Capsule still exists as one of the best options to use as a Time Machine backup system. Apple offers no first-party alternative to this or the AirPlay bridge feature.

So, the petitioner has a point. Rendering these products too unsafe to use could cause a lot of people to either disconnect and trash these perfectly-good devices, or leave unknowing individuals vulnerable to attack.

Perhaps this is yet another argument why Apple needs to get back into the router business. There just aren't any other products like it that can fit into the Apple ecosystem so well.

Still, beyond the ecosystem exclusive features like Time Capsule and AirPlay bridge, if you're using AirPort devices as a simple router, it may be time to finally upgrade. It is simply irresponsible to have your internet backbone built on a product that no longer receives security updates.

When we found it, the petition has 32 verified signatures of the starting goal of 50. It targets Apple and CEO Tim Cook as the decision-makers on the matter.