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Ready, Aim, HACK!

Posted by michael on from the reach-out-and-touch-someone dept.

KD5YPT writes "According to a story on Wired, Adam Laurie and Martin Herfurt demonstrated that they can hack a Bluetooth enabled phone from up to a mile away using a sniper rifle with yagi antenna. Kinda gives a new meaning to '1337 hAx0r2'."

7 of 277 comments (clear)

  1. It would be interesting... by AcquaCow · · Score: 4, Interesting

    to use this same setup to look down into a city and pick up individual wireless networks.

    War Sniping?

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  2. They should paint that thing orange by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    ... or something to make it look like a toy. They're going to have real guns pointed at them if they keep carrying that around, and I'd say anyone that shoots back would be entirely justified.

  3. that's why by eoyount · · Score: 5, Interesting

    That's why you should turn bluetooth off when you're not using it.

    Is there really any need to have bluetooth turned on all the time? I would think that it just wastes batteries.

    --
    To understand recursion,
    you must first understand recursion.
    1. Re:that's why by whorfin · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Toothing is why you leave it on. I would have figured that /. of all places would be all over this one.

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  4. Interesting Military Application by Vexler · · Score: 5, Interesting

    If deployed in the field, special ops soldiers can approach a terrorist safehouse, and activate this device to hack into any cell phone that may be vulnerable. Then they could simply listen in on the safehouse without ever being even 500 feet away, and can discern their movement if necessary.

    All this translates into being able not to tip off the bad guys that you are coming, and still able to glean important intel.

  5. Blue War Walking....? by d474 · · Score: 3, Interesting
    He conducted a similar test at Britain's House of Parliament, carrying a laptop in his backpack. After going through security, he wandered the ground floor for 14 minutes looking at paintings and passing politicians while the attack ran automatically from his backpack. Of 46 Bluetooth devices he found, eight phones were vulnerable to attack.
    Using this hack in the 'research' stage of a social engineering attack would be quite useful. Between this and the photos of the blue tooth sniper rifle, why hasn't MI5 highered these guys? Honestly! The guy in the photo reminded me of 'Q' in James Bond. Brilliant work.
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  6. Less conspicuous in wild.. cans and cameras by mattr · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I'd think a pringles or coke can would be a bit less conspicuous..

    On the other hand you know those security video cameras used in public places which can be remote controlled to rotate and zoom in on someone's face? They are usually hidden in smoked glass domes in ceiling or, I suppose, in less conspicuous ways in places like casinos or board rooms. Sounds like another good aiming device, I saw one $500 dollar model in Akihabara recently you can operate from a web page. Same shop for a few hundred bucks also sold remote cameras accessible via UHF.

    I'd be worried if I carried anything with Bluetooth (so far I've resisted..) The more it penetrates it seems the more tiny yagi antennas you'll see. Only saving grace I could imagine is if the yagi antenna is left powered up maybe you could detect it as the camera pans across you... IANA EM Engineer but would not a yagi antenna also transmit towards you any noise from say the video camera's motor or power supply? If so a detector might be in order..