Bluetooth hacking

Among the various presentations and video's of the latest CCC Congress, was the one from Bluetooth hacker Thierry Zoller. He demonstrated several bugs/problems deep within the protocol itself. His presentation, video and code can be found online.

A few points and tips from the presentation:

• encryption of bluetooth devices is weak
  
• getting the PIN and link is possible
• update you driver's!!!!!
  
• migrate to Bluetooth 2.1
  
• consider Bluetooth encryption a privacy measure and not a security feature
  
• remove existing "pairs" if you don't need them anymore
• "pair" devices only in safe locations
• if your device asks for the PIN again, don't give it
• don't trust bluetooth 1.0 -1.2
• generate a new key every 5 minutes and use 16 characters

The only thing is, up until now, Bluetooth sniffers were very expensive hardware, costing up to 10.000$. Or so we were told to believe. So Bluetooth hacking wasn't that widespread. But isn't it possible to transform a 30$ Bluetooth dongle into a sniffer? Well, that is exactly what Thierry Zoller explains in his "Busting the Bluetooth Myth". So beware of bluetooth.