Slashdot Mirror
Build Your Own Bluetooth Sniper Rifle
Jim Buzbee writes "I don't think I'd do it, but these guys built a Bluetooth Sniper rifle, went to the roof of a downtown Los Angles skyscraper and pointed it at nearby buildings. See what they found, and if you're so inclined, they'll show how to build your own and maybe, just maybe, you too can snag Paris Hilton's address book." (Which was not snagged via Bluetooth snooping, as the article points out.) This version looks a bit more polished than the one mentioned last August.
After the DC Sniper incident, this gave me a fright as I thought someone has built a bluetooth-guided sniper rifle, which indicates when your bullet is aligned perfectly with your target's bluetooh tag, and those who auto-accept Bluetooth pairing are in trouble.
Seriously though, I wonder how many people do auto-accept BT connections? My PDA only accepts known pairs, so you need to physically talk to me to pair you up for the first time.
The friendly article seems to mentioned the "success" in BT detection, but didn't go in details of successful connection. It's like car thieves claim to detect 20,000 cars in the city centre, but didn't say how many were unlocked.
Rock that crushes, Paper & Scissors that don't matter.
From the article:
We decided to quickly conclude the scan, given police activity in the area earlier in the day from a bomb scare.
You too can get shot for looking like a terrorist!
A latent existence
I think the server just got headshot.
...is human curiosity. Yes, there are many dangers from snooping, and there have been recent reports of prototype Bluetooth viruses - but even upgraded and securer versions of the protocol won't stop the fact that you just won't be able to refuse opening that interesting looking picture somebody is trying to send you.
I've seen it a lot at my school, whereby a particularly dodgy or deprecating picture (no goatse yet, but can't be long) is passed along in the lounges by somebody simply searching for Bluetooth phones and sending a pic, which simply can't be refused ("because it might be something important!!!"). I'd say it's even more tempting to accept a Bluetoothed file than an email attachment, because in Bluetooth you're only getting the bare information about a file (ie, the size of it and file type), whereas you can generally filter out automatically generated email viruses with ease...
The solution is to turn Bluetooth off all the time except when you want to use it (something I do anyway, since it conserves battery power), but a surprisingly large number of people seem to have it on all the time.
Site is dying. Now they're facing the real test: can you use a Bluetooth rifle against a Slashdot attack? There's one Slashdotter... another one... look, over there! But the battle is hopeless, most Slashdotters are secure in their parents' basement.
It's not even funny any more how fast these sites go down. It doesn't do the site owner or us any good - once again, what will it take for Slashdot to implement a mirror system?
For example... this one.
Meep meep
They made the think look like a rifle with collapsing stock etc... A kid almost got killed outside detroit about a year ago for hanging around on a roof with a paintball gun.
So let me get this straight, if you have your device always on and discoverable you are vulnerable? Jesus, I would never expect that. Next thing you know it will be dangerous to be connected to the web without a firewall installed.
Bluetooth is nice, but the security measure do seem pretty weak, no minimum pin length etc.
how about instead of sniper rifles in a city, binoculars on a nudist beach ?
why do the best inventions always need to be modified to be better.
Business Voyeur
...this is idiotic. Not their little invention (which is pretty slick), but their test on top of a skyscraper. Are you really that fucking stupid? A couple of guys with a sniper rifle sitting on top of a tall building is just asking for trouble. Probably doesn't even have a license for it. This is even more stupid than that guy who shined a laser into an airplane cockpit on more than one occasion. I've done some dumb things in my life, but Jesus Fucking Christ. Cops have killed people for less than that.
Really, they should of called it something besides a 'Sniper Rifle' I'm sure that'd go down well when the cops ask what you're doing.
."
"Oh i'm just pointing my Bluetooth Sniper Rifle at that crowded building of . .
*insert police beatdown here*
Your hair look like poop, Bob! - Wanker.
This article shows that "short range" RF technologies such as bluetooth or RFID are only short range in the context of a particular transceiver. If someone wants to access an RF device from a greater distance, they need only build a high-gain antenna.
Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
www.tomsnetnotworking.com
Yes it would. Actually it would be easier to buy a rifle
You know the Tom's Hardware web admin is sitting in a family room somewhere wondering why his pager keeps going off.... Sunday Slashdottings must be one of the most evil things inflictable on a person ;-)
Actually no.
You will hear a sonic boom anytime something travels faster than the speed of sound at your location. Typically, this means an aircraft must travel abut Mach 1.15 above you for you to hear the boom on the ground. An aircraft travelling Mach 1 will typically not produce a boom on the ground as the speed of sound is greater on the ground than it is at altitude. And, of course, anything travelling faster (i.e. Mach 4) will cause a boom as well.
Back to our program.
"slashdot" did 46723723346844684 damage to "innocent webserver" in 1 hit(s) with the "bluetooth sniper rifle"
head: 46723723346844684
body: 0
arms: 0
legs: 0
By reading this, you have given me brief control of your mind.
If they had made this look like a telescope rather than a weapon, and mounted it on a tripod, they could have pointed it just about anywhere they wanted and nobody would have paid a whole lot of attention to them. The rifle-like appearance only served to make the device look much more dangerous than it was.
There are times when the form factor of a rifle makes perfect sense (rifle stocks for cameras, for example), but many others where it just DOESN'T. This is one of the latter group.
Mal-2
How is the Riemann zeta function like Trump rallies? Both have an endless number of trivial zeros.
While the early version was held together with tie-straps and rubber bands, this newest version has a much more professional look.
Yes, the professional hit man look is exactly what I'm trying to have when I'm searching for vulnerable bluetooth devices.
I love my sig.
Yes, indeed! Let's make something that looks like a heavy rifle with a scope on it. Then climb up on a skyscraper in downtown LA and start pointing it round at other buildings and pedestrians down on the street, etc.
Double bonus points if Schwarzenegger or some other high profile politician is in town that day.
I forgot to add: make any such device look like a gigantic Christian cross, not like a sniper rifle. People have a hard time banning crosses and you have a God-given right to point crosses anywhere you please. If it has a Bluetooth antenna at its tip, well, that's just an expression of your religious commitment to communicating with God and your fellow man.
And, whatever you do, don't make it shaped like a 4ft dildo. With sniper rifles, at least the powerful gun lobby will stand behind you. When someone stands behind you while you are pointing a 4ft dildo off a rooftop, it's probably not to protect your civil liberties.
Imagine my disappointment.