BrakTooth Flaws Affect Billions of Bluetooth Devices
A team of security researchers has published details this week about a suite of 16 vulnerabilities that impact the Bluetooth software stack that ships with System-on-Chip (SoC) boards from several popular vendors.
The vulnerabilities, collectively known as BrakTooth, allow attackers to crash or freeze devices or, in the worst-case scenarios, execute malicious code and take over entire systems.
For their tests, researchers said they only examined the Bluetooth software libraries for 13 SoC boards from 11 vendors. However, subsequent research found that the same Bluetooth firmware was most likely used inside more than 1,400 chipsets, used as the base for a wide assortment of devices, such as laptops, smartphones, industrial equipment, and many types of smart “Internet of Things” devices.
