New BLUFFS Bluetooth Attack Expose Devices to Adversary-in-the-Middle Attacks
Dec 04, 2023
Encryption / Technology
New research has unearthed multiple novel attacks that break Bluetooth Classic's forward secrecy and future secrecy guarantees, resulting in adversary-in-the-middle (AitM) scenarios between two already connected peers. The issues, collectively named BLUFFS , impact Bluetooth Core Specification 4.2 through 5.4. They are tracked under the identifier CVE-2023-24023 (CVSS score: 6.8) and were responsibly disclosed in October 2022. The attacks "enable device impersonation and machine-in-the-middle across sessions by only compromising one session key," EURECOM researcher Daniele Antonioli said in a study published late last month. This is made possible by leveraging two new flaws in the Bluetooth standard's session key derivation mechanism that allow the derivation of the same key across sessions. While forward secrecy in key-agreement cryptographic protocols ensures that past communications are not revealed, even if the private keys to a particular exchange are re...
