2 Billion Bluetooth Devices Remain Exposed to Airborne Attack Vulnerabilities

One year after security vendor Armis disclosed a set of nine exploitable vulnerabilities in Bluetooth, some 2 billion devices — including hundreds of millions of Android and iOS smartphones — remain exposed to the threat.

Armis disclosed the vulnerabilities — collectively dubbed "BlueBorne" — last September, describing them as an attack vector for adversaries to take complete control of Bluetooth devices. At the time, the company estimated some 5 billion Bluetooth-enabled products, including laptops, phones, smartwatches, and TVs, were impacted.

Since then, the vendors of many of these products have issued patches and software updates addressing the flaws. But Armis estimates that at least 2 billion devices remain just as open to attack via BlueBorne vulnerabilities as they were one year ago.