Bluesmack is a cyber-attack done on Bluetooth-enabled devices. Basically, it is the type of DoS attack for Bluetooth. When the victim’s device is overwhelmed by huge packets it is known as Blusmacking
By flooding a large number of echo packets causes DoS. This Bluetooth attack uses Ping of Death for DoS.
The attack uses the L2CAP layer to transfer an oversized packet to the Bluetooth enabled devices, Resulting in Denial Of Service.
L2CAP – Logical Link Control and Adaption Protocol provides connectionless and connection-oriented data services to the upper layers of the Bluetooth stack.
What is Bluesmack Attack?
In the L2CAP protocol, there is a possibility of requesting and receiving echo from other Bluetooth-enabled peers. L2CAP ping can do this. This L2CAP ping helps in checking connectivity and the roundtrip time of established connections with other Bluetooth-enabled devices.
The attack can be performed in a very limited range, around 10 meters for smartphones. For laptops, it can reach up to 100 meters with powerful transmitters.
How to do Bluesmack Attack?
- Standard tools like l2ping that come with the Linux Bluex utils package can be used to do this attack.
- The I2ping tool further allows a hacker to specify the packet length with some commands. The Hacker will overwhelm the Bluetooth-enabled devices with malicious scripts, causing the device to be inoperable by the victim.
- The attack, at last, affects the regular operation of the victim device and can even degrade the performance of the device
The l2ping, which ships with the standard distribution of the BlueZ utils, allows the user to specify the packet length of the l2ping using -s <number> option. Many devices start reacting with packet size starting from 600 bytes.
How to prevent this attack?
- Turn the Bluetooth off when not in use
- Keep the Bluetooth off in public places, including restaurants, stores, airports, shopping malls, train stations, etc
- Do not store the permanent pairing PIN code on the device.
- Be aware, If you see some unusual behavior in your device try to go far, Because Bluetooth attacks have direct impact on distance with target.
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