Bluetooth Products.. Beware...

[Slim-x]

Bluetooth Products.

Hackers are using this and What are called Hotspots and getting away with using your internet...

Beware... I have talked to a X-hacker who now help stop hackers from hacking you. But he said with this type of sevice they can not stop hackers from using your internet...


Bluetooth Products A hackers friend.

[Slim-x]

Bluetooth is beginning to appear in more and more devices, from PDAs and laptops to cell phones. Unlike 802.11-based wireless LANs, which have a range of as much as 100 yards or more, Bluetooth is a short-range wireless technology that generally transmits only up to 30 feet. Nonetheless, security experts are beginning to raise concerns about Bluetooth. The Cambridge, Mass.-based consultancy AtStake Inc. recently released a report documenting its surprisingly successful efforts to gain unauthorized access into devices via Bluetooth.

Recently, Ollie Whitehouse, AtStake's director of security architecture, told SearchMobileComputing.com more about Bluetooth's vulnerabilities, and about how businesses can best defend themselves.

Is Bluetooth a major security concern for organizations?
Ollie Whitehouse: In Europe, Bluetooth has been actively deployed for the last three years, and in the U.S. Bluetooth usage is growing as well. It's found in cell phones and PDAs that carry sensitive personal information. Given that, there should be concern.

But because Bluetooth is such a short-range technology, you generally can't sit in an organization's parking lot and use it to tap into the network. Since a hacker needs to be almost sitting next to someone using Bluetooth, doesn't that diminish the risks?
Whitehouse: Bluetooth becomes a high security risk where there are large groups of people using it for an extended period of time, like when you are taking the train to work, or sitting in an airport. Then, you can go war nibbling.

What is 'war nibbling'?
Whitehouse: 'War nibbling' is taking lots of small bits of data, while in close proximity to the Bluetooth user. The software we developed to war nibble runs on Linux, on either a laptop or a PDA. The type of information that is exposed ranges from your address book on a cell phone to your hard drive on a laptop. The range of information is quite extreme.

Does anyone do this today?
Whitehouse: No one is doing this now. This is all based on work we are doing in our research lab. We are trying to better understand what Bluetooth is, and the security issues around it. We are trying to look forward 12 or 18 months. We have released a proof of concept on our Web site that shows how Bluetooth can be compromised in just 11 hours. We will release a white paper in the next few weeks that demonstrates a faster attack.

Where are the vulnerabilities in Bluetooth?
Whitehouse: One of the vulnerabilities is in the non-discovery mode. If your Bluetooth-enabled device is in non-discovery mode when someone else's device is looking for available connections, it should not be able to detect you. But we have found that, by brute force, you can detect the address and query. That gets you past the first layer of security. Then you can discover what class of device it is, and you can narrow it to the vendor and the chip set. But right now, encryption is not an issue.

Since Bluetooth does not tie directly into the network -- it only moves data between devices -- are security vulnerabilities in Bluetooth less of a concern than threats facing wireless LANs?
Whitehouse: I think that, to the individual, the impact is greater. If I have a PDA, it might contain my credit card information or my burglar alarm code. Also, there is often a lot of corporate data that is downloaded onto these devices. Think of a mobile salesperson who is likely to have all of his client contact information on his PDA, for example.

What can businesses do to protect themselves?
Whitehouse: For starters, devices should be set to non-detectable mode. Users should develop software-based firewalls for PDAs that will help. Also, shut the air interface down when they are not using it.

Should businesses ban Bluetooth?
Whitehouse: Businesses will obviously gain from using Bluetooth. They should not ban it outright, but they should understand the risks. They need to deploy it in a controlled manner, not just automatically adopt it. It is hard to do, because this is a consumer technology, so it is going to enter the workplace no matter what you do. But businesses should educate their employees and explain the risks. Employees are not willingly malicious. People would not willingly expose themselves or their co-workers.

Will security fears stymie the growth of Bluetooth, like they did with wireless LANs?
Whitehouse: Bluetooth does not face similar problems, because it is showing up in consumer products, which people will be bringing to work. Businesses will adapt to the security issues, as they have done with Wi-Fi.

Is Bluetooth being changed to address these potential security problems?
Whitehouse: We already have Bluetooth 1.2, which fixes the issue of being able to discover non-discoverable devices. But the problem is upgrading the Bluetooth devices that are already out there. Some Bluetooth-embedded products have a long shelf life, so new standards always need to be backward compatible.

[Slim-x]

Hackers Could Access Nokia Phones
By Sebastian Rupley
February 20, 2004

Total posts: 1





Cell phone manufacturer Nokia has admitted that several of its Bluetooth-enabled phones are vulnerable to attack, which could result in a hacker gaining access to personal data stored on a targeted phone.

ADVERTISEMENT

Meanwhile, the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG), which, unlike the Wi-Fi Alliance, doesn't test products for compliance with the Bluetooth standard, says the problem boils down to how a particular wireless device manufacturer uses the Bluetooth specification.

The Nokia phones affected by the security vulnerabilities are models 6310, 6310i, 8910 and 8910i, according to Keith Nowak, a Nokia spokesperson. All four are older models of Nokia phones, adds Nowak, and the only one that sold in the United States was the 6310i. A blog, maintained by Adam Laurie, has been put in place to track news about the vulnerabilities; a list of the affected phones on the site includes several Sony Ericsson phones as well as the Nokia models. (Laurie is a principal at the United Kingdom's A.L. Digital Ltd., which first called attention to the security vulnerabilities.)



More Mobile Phones


The act of exploiting the vulnerabilities has already created new techie slang—the attacks are being dubbed Bluesnarfing. In one strain of Bluesnarfing, a hacker can gain access to the entire phonebook and calendar of a vulnerable phone. In a second strain, a phone can be used to "pair" with another phone to gain access to phonebook data, calendar data, and even e-mail and photos.

"We suggest two things if you own one of the affected models," says Nokia's Nowak. "There's no real patch to make this go away. But you don't want to accept a pairing from somebody you don't know. And if you're at, say, a trade show where there might be a lot of other people who have Bluetooth devices, it may make sense to turn the Bluetooth off." Nowak says Nokia has looked at its newer model phones and has not found them to be vulnerable.

"We are not aware of any fixes for the snarf attack at this time other than to switch off Bluetooth," states Laurie's blog. More information is available at his blog site.

[Slim-x]

Bluetooth - beware of drive-by hackers
by Joia Shillingford
Published: September 3 2001 10:18GMT | Last Updated: September 4 2001 11:42GMT

Bluetooth, the short-range radio standard, gives users a lot more freedom about where they use their portable computers to communicate. But it also opens up the possibility of so-called drive-by hacking or even carpark hacking.

Simon Gawne, vice president of marketing at software company Red-M, says: "In Silicon Valley, people wanting to connect to the internet will sometimes park outside a company with a wireless network and use its internet connection. They are part of a movement which thinks internet access should be free."

In the US, this has happened with the 802.11 wireless standard, but in theory someone sitting outside a Bluetooth-equipped building could get free internet access as many Bluetooth networks are connected to the net. The real problem, however, is that strangers could use Bluetooth as a way in to the company Lan or intranet.

"Even a Fed-Ex package could act as a Trojan Horse," warns Ori Pomerantz, a developer at Israel-based software company First Access. He says: "Suppose you are out of the office at a conference and the mailroom leaves a parcel near your computer. If the package includes a Bluetooth-enabled cellphone, the person who sent it to you could use it to dial into the company network."

Bluetooth allows all Bluetooth-enabled devices within a range of 10 metres to communicate. "The fact that Bluetooth is short-range is meaningless from a security perspective," he says, "because it isn't short enough."

There are perils outside the office, too. "A travelling executive in the airport could use your Bluetooth phone to transmit data from his laptop or personal organiser to Tokyo at your expense," cautions Troy Holtby, product manager for wireless products at 3Com.

"Bluetooth is promiscuous. Any Bluetooth mobile in range will be happy to pick up the call," points out Mr Pomerantz. The technology could also be used to transfer confidential files invisibly from one laptop to another.

With Bluetooth, even a humble computer mouse could have a sinister purpose. "Let's suppose you allow any Bluetooth mouse to talk to your laptop - after all, it's only a harmless mouse. But another mouse could be put in range and pretend to be yours; then it could send characters that cause a buffer overrun and help it break in."

Encryption can help to protect data transmitted over Bluetooth, but only if users switch it on. Moreover, in, say, an airport lounge providing net access via Bluetooth, encryption only takes place between the user's laptop and the network access point nearby, says Mr Pomerantz. "It won't be much protection if a hacker breaks in to the access point or to any router along the way. To be really secure, the data would have to be encrypted by the user and not decrypted till it reaches its final destination."

Rory Davidson, technical architect at KPMG-owned consultancy Metrius, says: "Security is the mobile and wireless technology's Achilles heel. The large partners within the Bluetooth group, including Intel, are all concentrating efforts on resolving the security issues.

"Bluetooth uses ad hoc network connectivity, with networks formed on the fly from devices connected wirelessly. Individual devices act as routers when relaying messages to other devices, which are too far apart from the sending one. The problem is that as all the devices in the network are dependent on each other to relay messages, denial-of-service attacks are easy to perform."

"The design of an ad hoc network is not fixed, either," continues Mr Davidson. "It changes all the time when these mobile devices move in and out of other devices' range."

Another potential problem is that because mobile devices are dependent on batteries, attacks which deliberately drain battery power could put them out of action. It can also be difficult for Bluetooth users in a meeting to ensure that they are communicating just with their colleagues, not with competitors in the same meeting.

Mr Davidson believes: "Bluetooth's security seems most suited to small ad hoc networks. Connecting a personal digital assistant (PDA) to a mobile phone using Bluetooth may also be secure enough."

Bluetooth can be made more secure by switching on encryption, specifying which devices, such as just your own mobile, you are willing to connect to, and adding extra firewall software, such as that developed by Red-M or First Access. Its frequency-hopping feature also makes it harder to hack.

Mr Gawne says: "A visitor to our head office near Slough, can connect to our Bluetooth network to use the internet while they are waiting to meet someone, but they can't get in to our intranet. We've added 128 bit encryption, and developed secure systems for medical Bluetooth networks."

3Com, the Palm PDA maker, also has 128 bit encryption in its $149 Bluetooth card and has made it easier for users to secure their systems.

Jeremy Green, principal consultant at researchers Ovum, predicts that: "Despite security fears, Bluetooth is too affordable and too useful not to succeed."

Jason Conyard, director of wireless strategy at Symantec, the anti-virus company, says if short-range wireless networks do take off: "The threats will one day range from virus-infected files being beamed between devices to full-blown 'worms' spreading via any and all communications networks."

[Slim-x]

WiFi Security: What Hackers Know That You Don't

This document outlines how hackers are exploiting vulnerabilities in 802.11 wireless LANs and describes the widely available hacking tools. As a collection of already published risks to wireless LANs, this white paper is written to inform IT security managers of what they are up against. In order to effectively secure their wireless LANs, enterprises must first know the potential dangers.

Information security managers and executives will gain an understanding of sophisticated attacks and the latest threats to WiFi networks. This paper advocates a layered approach to WiFi security that goes beyond new encryption and authentication standards to include 24x7 monitoring to identify rogue wireless LANs, detect intruders and attacks, enforce network security policies and monitor the health of the wireless LAN.


http://www.airdefense.net/ads/infoworld/mar04/