Security researchers have discovered new Bluetooth security flaws that allow hackers to impersonate devices and perform man-in-the-middle attacks.
The vulnerabilities impact all devices with Bluetooth 4.2 through Bluetooth 5.4, including laptops, PCs, smartphones, tablets, and others.
Users can do nothing at the moment to fix the vulnerabilities, and the solution requires device manufacturers to make changes to the security mechanisms used by the technology.
Research paper: https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3576915.3623066
As someone who’s relatively tech illiterate, this simply means that a bad actor can see what information is being shared via Bluetooth, right? Like, if I connect to a pair of headphones, they could only receive whatever information my phone sends to the headphones and whatever information the headphones send back?
It means they can impersonate the Bluetooth device connected. Input devices are particularly concerning (keyboards and mice) as well as BT IoT devices which already historically lack good security controls. A lot of vehicles have Bluetooth integrated as well these days.
Welp, time to stop using bluetooth.
The lady in my ear just told me that “Bluetooth Disconnected,” but she knows I’ll be back soon.
Looks like a complex attack, so presumably the public is probably fine in practice. That said, I’ll probably hold off on buying new BT devices until this is fixed.
