Billions of smartphones, tablets, laptops, and IoT devices are using Bluetooth software stacks that are vulnerable to a new security flaw disclosed over the summer.
Named
BLESA (
Bluetooth
Low
Energy
Spoofing
Attack), the vulnerability impacts devices running the Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) protocol.
BLE is a slimmer version of the original Bluetooth (Classic) standard but designed to conserve battery power while keeping Bluetooth connections alive as long as possible. [...]
In a research project at Purdue University, a team of seven academics set out to investigate a section of the BLE protocol that plays a crucial role in day-to-day BLE operations but has rarely been analyzed for security issues.
Their work focused on the "
reconnection" process. This operation takes place after two BLE devices (the client and server) have authenticated each other during the pairing operation.
