New Bluetooth Hack Could Let Attackers Remotely Unlock Smart Locks and Cars

A novel Bluetooth relay attack can let cybercriminals more easily than ever remotely unlock and operate cars, break open residential smart locks, and breach secure areas.

The vulnerability has to do with weaknesses in the current implementation of Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), a wireless technology used for authenticating Bluetooth devices that are physically located within a close range.

“An attacker can falsely indicate the proximity of Bluetooth LE (BLE) devices to one another through the use of a relay attack,” U.K.-based cybersecurity company NCC Group said. “This may enable unauthorized access to devices in BLE-based proximity authentication systems.”

Relay attacks, also called two-thief attacks, are a variation of person-in-the-middle attacks in which an adversary intercepts communication between two parties, one of whom is also an attacker, and then relays it to the target device without any manipulation.

To mitigate such attacks, researchers recommend requiring additional checks beyond just inferred proximity to authenticate key fobs and other items.

Read the full article here – https://thehackernews.com/2022/05/new-bluetooth-hack-could-let-attackers.html