CMS Security Handbook: The Comprehensive Guide for WordPress®, Joomla!®, Drupal™, and Plone®

Bluetooth Security Considerations

Bluetooth is the technology that allows users to make hands-free calls, use a wireless mouse and keyboard, and annoy people by talking into thin air using earpieces. Bluetooth is a compact “data” radio. It operates on an unlicensed frequency, and transmits at a maximum distance of 100 meters (109 yards). Figure 10-1 shows a typical Bluetooth setup.

Figure 10-1: Example Bluetooth topology (Source: NIST Special Publication 800-121)

In Figure 10-1, you can see the mobile phone, personal digital assistant (PDA), and laptop computer all being “paired.” Many laptops today support both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, primarily because they can be packaged in a single chip. This enables the manufacturers to offer the most options at the lowest cost to you.

Bluetooth security has improved since its inception, and, for the most part, gone are the days of sitting on an airplane and using your laptop to connect to other laptops. This, of course, is rude, possibly illegal, and was a quite frequent practice in the early days of this standard.

Like most technologies, however, flaws have been discovered that have driven the development of new standards. Given its special role in your network, Bluetooth poses a very large potential threat to your website security. If a dedicated attacker can use Bluetooth to gain access to your systems, desktops, or your network, then planting ...