A group of security researchers discovered a critical security vulnerability in the protocol wirelessof Bluetooth communication, which leaves millions of devices vulnerable to attack.
Daniele Antonioli from Singapore University of Technology and Design, Nils Ole Tippenhauer from CISPA Helmholtz Center for Information Security και ο Kasper Rasmussen από το Department of Desktop Science University of Oxford published a paper entitled “The KNOB is Broken: Exploiting Low Entropy in the Encryption Key Negotiation Of Bluetooth BR/EDR, ”Where they reveal a new big security gap of Bluetooth.
According to the researchers, the new vulnerability in Bluetooth could leave millions of devices using the protocol exposed to a new kind of attack called KNOB (originally from Key Negotiation Of Bluetooth). The attack allows attackers to bypass the Bluetooth pairing process and spy on them data that are shared between different devices, even if they were paired.
The official KNOB website states:
Η επίθεση KNOB είναι δυνατή εξαιτίας ελαττωμάτων στις προδιαγραφές του Bluetooth. Συνεπώς, οποιαδήποτε συμβατή συσκευή Bluetοoth μπορεί να είναι ευάλωτη. Πραγματοποιήσαμε επιθέσεις KNOB σε περισσότερα από 17 μοναδικά Bluetoοth chips (σε 24 διαφορετικές συσκευές), μέχρι αυτή τη στιγμή. Μπορέσαμε να δοκιμάσουμε chips από τους κατασκευαστές Broadcom, Qualcomm, Apple, Intel και Chicony. Όλες οι συσκευές που δοκιμάσαμε ήταν ευάλωτες στην επίθεση KNOB
It appears to be a major security gap that affects all Bluetooth enabled devices.
So the researchers had to coordinate the disclosure with the manufacturers to have the time to fix the error and release the necessary security updates to the users. The security gap was revealed in November at 2018 and has been documented as CVE-2019-9506.
Apple, Intel and Microsoft have already released the necessary update that fixes the vulnerability of Bluetooth.
However, security researchers warn that if your device has not been updated by the end of 2018, it is vulnerable.
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