Bluetooth file browser hacking

You can find this for Linux if you purchase your laptop from a company that ships their hardware with Linux and Linux only, and writes their own custom drivers for their hardware.

This is why System 76 is such a great choice, as they develop and maintain their own drivers for Ubuntu, which is the only operating system they ship with. As a result, their interaction with both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi is very high quality, and questionable wireless tools become a lot more stable and useful. Figure 1. The System76 Galago Pro.

Lightweight with customized drivers to talk to their hardware. While it is entirely a personal choice, we feel that running Ubuntu on vendor-supported hardware is a solid way to go, and from the experience of using all three operating systems in a research capacity, this seems to deliver really consistent results - especially with Bluetooth.

For example, many of the Bluetooth utilities on Kali are for attacking and are often written for a single exploit or class of exploits , and many of these exploits have been patched in modern systems. There are tons of decent add-on hardware choices when it comes to Bluetooth.

When we say add-on hardware choices, we are typically referring to USB devices that provide features and capabilities that the built-in Bluetooth in your laptop doesn't have. As of this writing, most IoT that supports Bluetooth also supports 4. If any device claims to support Bluetooth 5. There are tons of choices when it comes to simple dongles. The main disadvantage is lack of decent support on macOS, and weird Windows support.

Starting with Windows 8 there were changes made to the Bluetooth drivers, so some dongles will work fine up through Windows 7 only, whereas others only support Windows 8 and newer.

If your choice is Linux, most will work with the normal Bluetooth drivers, such as Bluez , and should handle tasks like scanning with ease. Figure 2. SMK-Link Nano. Check the bottom of your computer bag, you might own one with no knowledge of how you got it. Dongles in this class are not a great choice for sniffing, unless you are using Wireshark to sniff from the dongle while you are using a tool to do probing with the same dongle.

Basic promiscuous sniffing capabilities with these dongles is usually nonexistent. Figure 3. Sena UD with included stubby antenna. While it comes with a small antenna, opting for some of the accessories like a dipole and a patch antenna can greatly extend the range of the device - for example, the patch antenna can increase the range up to a kilometer.

Again, pay attention to expected drivers on Windows, and on Linux there should be no issue. Figure 4. This dipole antenna on the UD gives it a range of about half a kilometer line of sight. The big pluses with this setup is that even the larger antenna when detached fits neatly in a bag and substantially increases the range. For both scanning and probing, this is a rock star. However, the biggest minus is that it is hardly stealthy.

Entire presentations have been done around Ubertooth , and while it has its strengths, it also has limitations. When it works, it works decently and will help get you data that is generally fairly hard to get otherwise.

But getting to that point is rather difficult. Expect dropped packets and a lot of restarts of whatever Bluetooth activity you are trying to capture, because getting a complete picture of what is happening Bluetooth-wise will take some patience - especially if you try sniffing.

As we talked about earlier, Bluetooth operates by hopping through frequencies within a specific range, or spectrum. Being that it is programmable is definitely a plus, and all of the software utilities - including firmware - are open-source.

You can hook up a more powerful dipole antenna and get better range out of it in a field setting, but frankly, the Ubertooth performs best in a controlled lab environment. The Nordic Semiconductor nRFDK device is a pretty good Bluetooth transmitter and receiver, with the sniffing abilities working better than expected. Like the Ubertooth, it is programmable, but the out-of-the-box firmware is fine for most quick hacker work, including sniffing.

The range is limited, but the quality is high. The researchers highlight that the hack can be riskier if a user has synced his phone with a vehicle that has been rented, shared through a subscription service, loaned, sold or returned at the end of a lease. Nearly every device used today has Bluetooth capabilities and people store a great deal of personal information on their phones and tablets. If hackers can hack the Bluetooth connections, then it can give access to sensitive information stored on their devices.

This stops other devices from scanning your Bluetooth device. Malware and Vulnerabilities. Get in touch with us now! Alerts Events DCR. BlueBorne BlueBorne is a vulnerability discovered in several Bluetooth implementations.

Btlejacking Btlejacking, a new form of Bluetooth attack vector was disclosed in August at the DefCon conference in Las Vegas by Damien Cauquil, head of research and development at Digital Security. BleedingBit is cited as a wake-up call to enterprise security for two reasons. CarsBlues Researchers at Privacy4Cars found a new mass security vulnerability dubbed as CarsBlues in the infotainment systems of several types of vehicles. Conclusion Nearly every device used today has Bluetooth capabilities and people store a great deal of personal information on their phones and tablets.

Publisher Cyware. Previous A critical DoS vulnerability affects several Yokogawa p News and Updates, Hacker News. The Bluetooth world has its own equivalent called l2ping. This discovery tool, allows the user to check whether a particular device is within the range and is reachable for Bluetooth communication.

Those were the basic tools that will allow you to play with Bluetooth technology and make very good reconnaissance of its operation. The tool that was mentioned earlier hcitool , this is the one you should spend some time with, if you want to really develop in this area of Bluetooth penetration testing.

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