Bluesniping

Bluesniping has emerged as a specific form of Bluesnarfing, a method for identifying Bluetooth enabled devices at longer ranges than normally possible. According to Wired magazine, this method surfaced at the Black Hat Briefings and DEF CON hacker conferences of 2004 where it was shown on the G4techTV show The Screen Savers.

Parts and methodology

In the article "'Rifle' Sniffs Out Vulnerabilities", the 'rifle' features a directional antenna, Linux-powered embedded PC, and Bluetooth module all mounted on a Ruger 10/22 folding stock. According to Flexilis, the rifle is capable of targeting Bluetooth at ranges over 1 mile (1.6 km). This type of Bluesniping has been utilized to demonstrate the increasing security vulnerability of Bluetooth devices.

According to the Bluetooth Special Interest Group, in order to break into a Bluetooth device, an attacker must "force two paired Bluetooth devices to break their connection", known as Blueballing. One should take away from this the caveat of never pairing with unknown devices or in public places. The connection between one's cellular phone and one's Bluetooth-enabled headset, for instance, could be broken and the cellular phone may be able to be highjacked by the remote "Bluesniper" for one purpose or another.