Abstract
Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) has become the de facto communication protocol for the Internet of Things (IoT) and smart wearable devices for its ultra-low energy consumption, ease of development, good enough network coverage, and data transfer speed. Due to the simplified design of this protocol, there have been lots of security and privacy vulnerabilities. As billions of health care, personal fitness wearable, smart lock, industrial automation devices adopt this technology for communication, its vulnerabilities should be dealt with high priority. Some segregated works on BLE were performed focusing on various vulnerabilities, such as the insecure implementation of encryption, device authentication, user privacy, etc. However, there has been no comprehensive survey on the security vulnerabilities of this protocol. In this survey paper, we present a comprehensive taxonomy for the security and privacy issues of BLE. We present possible attack scenarios for different types of vulnerabilities, classify them according to their severity, and list possible mitigation techniques. We also provide case studies regarding how different vulnerabilities can be exploited in real BLE devices.
Highlights
Bluetooth Low Energy [1], [2], known as Bluetooth Smart, is the most widely used communication protocol for Internet of Things (IoT) devices
Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) protocol was originally designed for short-range communication with smart IoT sensors and devices with very limited power consumption, e.g., a BLE device running in a small battery can last for 1-4 years [5]
Our work mainly focuses on BLE technology and its security and privacy vulnerabilities found in existing wearable and IoT devices
Summary
Bluetooth Low Energy [1], [2], known as Bluetooth Smart, is the most widely used communication protocol for IoT devices. As of 2019, there are 14.2 billion linked IoT devices, with that figure predicted to rise to 25 billion by 2021 Most of these IoT devices use BLE for data communication and Internet connectivity. The widespread use of Classic Bluetooth [1] in billions of mobile phones, laptops aided the adaptation of BLE as they share a similar implementation.
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