Bluetooth Cryptographic Validation Vulnerability

A vulnerability in the way some Bluetooth software implementations validate cryptographic key exchange parameters has been discovered by group of researchers.

Threat ID:: CC-2551
Category:: Exploit
Threat Severity:: Low
Threat Vector:
Published:: 26 July 2018 12:00 AM

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Summary

A vulnerability in the way some Bluetooth software implementations validate cryptographic key exchange parameters has been discovered by group of researchers.

Affected platforms

The following platforms are known to be affected:

Bluetooth

Bluetooth - All specifications and versions are affected

Threat details

Exploitation of this vulnerability could allow a remote unauthenticated attacker to obtain the encryption keys used by devices to pair.

The Bluetooth core specification uses an elliptic-curve Diffie-Helman (ECDH) based mechanism to pair devices. During pairing, devices will exchange their ECDH public keys to construct a shared key based upon an agreed set of parameters. Some Bluetooth implementations may not correctly validate these parameters, resulting in an improperly formed shared key

An attacker within wireless range of a device may exploit this vulnerability to inject an invalid public key during the pairing process in order to obtain the session key of the user. The attacker would then be able to intercept and decrypt all messages sent by the device as well as perform man-in-the-middle attacks against the user.

This vulnerability is present in all Bluetooth specifications and versions.

For further information

Remediation steps

Type	Step
	All major manufacturers and vendors are producing software and firmware updates to address this vulnerability. Users should contact their IT providers and upgrade their affected systems as soon as updates are available.

CVE Vulnerabilities

Status

CVE-2018-5383

Last edited: 17 February 2020 12:39 pm