“BrakTooth” Bluetooth vulnerabilities: A new risk to millions of devices worldwide.
In recent years, have been discovered severalvulnerabilities Bluetooth, showing that this useful technology that allows us to connect devices without the hassle of wires is not all that secure. Security researchers recently found a new set of vulnerabilities that could crash or take complete control of billions of devices. This time, it's not a problem with the Bluetooth standard itself. Instead, it's the result of poorly implemented device firmware.
Recently, security researchers at the Singapore University of Technology and Design published a report on new security vulnerabilities in the Bluetooth software stacks of several commercial products.
See also: Apple: Will notify you if you are being tracked by Bluetooth detectors
These are 16 vulnerabilities, which are known as “BrakTooth” and allow a variety of attacks on billions of devices around the world, incorporating chips from popular vendors such as Intel, Infineon (Cypress), Silicon Labs, Qualcomm and others.
There are over 1,400 devices known to have one of the aforementioned Bluetooth “BrakTooth” vulnerabilities, including Microsoft’s Surface Book 3, Surface Laptop 3, Surface Pro 7, Surface Go 2, several Dell Optiplex desktops and Alienware laptops , several Asus and HP ultrabooks , and phones like the Xperia XZ2, Oppo Reno 5G , and Pocophone F1. Industrial IoT systems based on Espressif Systems’ ESP32 chipset and Qualcomm’s CSR8811 are also affected , as well as a variety of wireless computer and phone accessories, smart home devices , and car infotainment systems .
See also: Patch Tuesday August 2021: Fixed 44 vulnerabilities and the Print Spooler
Security researchers are concerned that some vendors are not willing to fix all of these problems. The truth is that the vulnerabilities are numerous and the process will certainly be difficult. However, devices are at risk. The impact varies from one device to another, with the worst vulnerability being CVE-2021-28139, which allows an attacker to execute code on the target device. Some devices are only vulnerable to denial-of-service attacks or disruption of Bluetooth communication. However, this issue can usually be resolved with a simple restart.
See also: Google: Uses machine learning to prevent DDoS attacks
As we mentioned above, the 16 “BrakTooth” vulnerabilities don’t affect the Bluetooth standard itself, but rather the various implementations made by chipset vendors. And since patches are still being created for some of the affected devices, the researchers have delayed the release of proof-of-concept exploits until next month. For more information on the BrakTooth vulnerabilities and updates, check here.
All you can do to mitigate the risk is to turn off Bluetooth when you're not using it and install security updates when they are available.
Source: TechSpot
