INTERACT FORUM

Networks and Remotes => Media Network => Topic started by: jmone on September 13, 2015, 07:20:08 am

Title: Unofficial AirPlay Protocol Specification
Post by: jmone on September 13, 2015, 07:20:08 am

I'm still not 100% happy with using 3rd party apps to push sync audio to devices, and in some searching found this Unofficial AirPlay Protocol Specification (http://nto.github.io/AirPlay.html)on how Airplay works.  

I like this bit of the doco - "They are based on well-known standard networking protocols such as Multicast DNS, HTTP, RTSP, RTP or NTP, with custom extensions"  ;D

...any way I thought it would be good to if you want to have a squiz as adding Airplay support to MC would open up a whole bunch of additional renderers and would excite your iStuff users.

Title: Re: Unofficial AirPlay Protocol Specification
Post by: glynor on September 13, 2015, 09:41:22 am

Don't do it now!

http://9to5mac.com/2015/09/11/apple-ios-9-airplay-improvements-screen-mirroring/

Quote

“What Apple did this time around with iOS 9 updates is make a wide-sweeping change to underlying protocols that power AirPlay,” Dave Stanfill, president and CEO of Squirrels explained. “A lot of the pairing setups (like how your mobile device interacts with a receiver) have changed. A lot of the exchanges between an iOS device and an Apple TV or any of the receivers have changed. The actual mechanism through which a mirroring connection is established was entirely overhauled. So, many underlying AirPlay components and protocols are entirely different in iOS 9. Not only at a security level but also with the way the two devices talk to each other.”

Title: Re: Unofficial AirPlay Protocol Specification
Post by: Hendrik on September 13, 2015, 10:08:22 am

The unofficial specification has been out there for a while already, but at this time it doesn't really change anything.

Title: Re: Unofficial AirPlay Protocol Specification
Post by: AndrewFG on September 13, 2015, 11:09:16 am

Quote

this document does not explain how to circumvent any kind of security implemented by Apple

That just about says it all I think..

Title: Re: Unofficial AirPlay Protocol Specification
Post by: jmone on September 13, 2015, 10:10:57 pm

Typical.   No idea that the issue was that they want to only authenticate with licensed devices.  

Seems however that their keys were reverse engineered years ago (https://www.theiphonewiki.com/wiki/AirPlay#RSA_private_key_stored_in_AirPort_Express) for Audio and are widely in use by 3rd party and open source SW (https://github.com/abrasive/shairport).

Title: Re: Unofficial AirPlay Protocol Specification
Post by: tyler69 on April 11, 2016, 12:35:17 pm

Are there any plans to add this functionality (what Shairport4w does) to JRiver?

Title: Re: Unofficial AirPlay Protocol Specification
Post by: JimH on April 11, 2016, 12:37:24 pm

Probably not.  Apple hasn't been a reliable partner.

Title: Re: Unofficial AirPlay Protocol Specification
Post by: tyler69 on April 11, 2016, 12:41:44 pm

Too bad. Thanks for the quick reply though.