Major vulnerability discovered in Bluetooth, once considered safe

Here we go again. Another day, another critical security breach. Researchers from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology and the Hiroshi Fujiwara Cybersecurity Research Center found a feat in wireless technology. This allows them to read the information directly. The thing is, until now, basically, Bluetooth was widely considered secure.

Unlike Wifi systems or other networks, Bluetooth requires pairing. Thus, each device is vulnerable only when it is actively seeking each other. Once a phone and a car, for example, have connected, they just point to each other and can use a private security key on the backend. An encrypted backchannel connects the devices and you are largely defined. For some time, because of this, Bluetooth was considered quite resistant to attack. Resistant, but not invulnerable. " The technology that we have developed reveals the encryption key shared by the devices and allows us, or a third device, to join the conversation," said Professor Eli Biham, Director of the Center for Research on cybersecurity of Hiroshi Fujiwara. ] Phys.org . "We can spy on or sabotage a conversation.As long as we do not actively participate, the user has no way of knowing that there is a third party listening."

Bluetooth uses a relatively advanced cryptography method, but researchers have found a way around this by using mathematics (because of course, funky numbers are the solution). Fortunately, the team has been in contact with hardware and software companies to obtain patches.

We also contacted major international companies such as Intel, Google, Apple, Qualcomm and Broadcom, which held most of the relevant market. the violation and ways to fix it, "said Biham." Google has defined the violation as "severe" and distributed an update about a month ago; Apple has released an update this week. Other manufacturers who have heard of the violation have contacted us to check their products. "

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