RE: Wireless device vulnerability?

From: Toni Heinonen (Toni.Heinonenat_private)
Date: Mon Mar 25 2002 - 11:29:27 PST

  • Next message: J Edgar Hoover: "RE: Wireless device vulnerability?"

    Evening.
    
    > On Mon, 25 Mar 2002, Toni Heinonen wrote:
    > 
    > >  In the US and Europe, Bluetooth uses frequencies 2.400 MHz 
    > to 2.483,5
    > > MHz, with 79 different bands to hop on, each 80 MHz wide or 
    > sometimes
    > > more. Seeing as you would not try to synchronize your 
    > jammer with the
    > 
    > I suspect you mean 2.4000 GHz to 2.4835 GHz.
    >
    > That's a total of 83.5 Mhz of bandwidth. I fail to see how 
    > you can get 79
    > *different* bands each 80 MHz wide in an 83.5 MHz space.
    
    Ehh, sorry. One megahertz in between, and 79 bands, as said.
     
    > > hop sequence, do you think it would really be capable of 
    > jamming that
    > > whole band? After all, even a square wave won't produce 
    > that much of a
    > > disturbance to the neighbouring bands. I mean, of course you could
    > 
    > Blotting out a signal is always easier than detecting it. 
    > Generating 83.5
    > Mhz of noise at 2.4 GHz isn't hard at all.
    
    Okay.
    
    > > Of course, the whole idea is that the protective safeguards for a
    > > system do not cost more than the protected assets. Seeing as how a
    > > Bluetooth chip is supposed to cost 5$ (of course not yet, 
    > but probably
    > > so after mass production), would it really be possible to build a
    > > jamming device of this magnitude for 10$ (the cost of a two-machine
    > > Bluetooth network)?
    > 
    > Would it really be possible to build a Bluetooth network for 
    > $10? I'll bet
    > teleware.fi will never bill $10 for building one.
    
    I wonder what you mean. Are you talking about a network infrastructure? After all, isn't the idea of Bluetooth that you have two devices, such as a laptop and a mobile phone, that are interconnected with Bluetooth transceivers instead of, say, a serial cable?
    
    And, being an ad-hoc wireless network, it doesn't require base infrastructure. Instead, if you join your Bluetooth devices to some fixed network, e.g. Ethernet, you will have some sort of a gateway device (a router, a laptop computer) that has both Ethernet connectivity and a Bluetooth transceiver. So in essence, you won't have to get new network elements into your existing Ethernet network.
    
    How could I "sell a Bluetooth network"? Are you talking about the routers and other gateways that interjoin an ad-hoc Bluetooth network into a company's fixed network?
    
    And, as I stated in my previous post, my company has no financial interest in WLAN installations or the like.
     
    > While not a law of nature, it has been consistently demonstrated that
    > wireless networks cost more than the vendor claimed and 
    > aren't as reliable
    > as the vendor claimed.
    
    Yes, indeed so. But with Bluetooth, aren't we talking simply about the transceivers and perhaps firmware/software?
    
    > Bluetooth is the 'latest and greatest' in a long line of 
    > solutions that
    > have consistently failed to live up to their claims.
    > 
    > Here's a great example;
    > 
    > Motorola sold a communications system to my state, making the 
    > same claims
    > you make for bluetooth. It carries Police, Fire, EMS and 
    > government voice
    > and data traffic. It is used for dispatching, Mobile Data 
    > Terminals and
    > control of MOSCAD devices such as traffic lights.
    
    But that doesn't sound anything like Bluetooth. Bluetooth is meant for personal area networks, whereas the network you describe is a wide area mobile phone network with data capabilities.
    
    > It was finished several years late, 200% over budget, and has never
    > achieved more than 95% reliability.
    > 
    > Worse, it would cost about $100 to disable this multi-million dollar
    > system.
    > 
    > It uses a small number of frequencies in the 800Mhz band for digital
    > frequency hopping. The frequencies are fixed, and the PSN is 
    > so weak you
    > can break it in realtime.
    
    Indeed. I assume the technology was proprietary? When it comes to Bluetooth, I think the cipher and underlying encryption infrastructure is sound (as sound as WLANs were before they were deployed :)
    
    TONI HEINONEN, CISSP
       TELEWARE OY
       Telephone  +358 (9) 3434 9123  *  Fax  +358 (9) 3431 321
       Wireless  +358 40 836 1815
       Kauppakartanonkatu 7, 00930 Helsinki, Finland
       toni.heinonenat_private  *  www.teleware.fi
    



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