New 'Spectra' attack breaks the separation between Wi-Fi and Bluetooth

guest · May 21, 2020

New 'Spectra' attack breaks the separation between Wi-Fi and Bluetooth
Technical details to be presented in August at the Black Hat 2020 security conference
May 21, 2020
https://www.zdnet.com/article/new-spectra-attack-breaks-the-separation-between-wi-fi-and-bluetooth/

Academics from Germany and Italy say they developed a new practical attack that breaks the separation between Wi-Fi and Bluetooth technologies running on the same device, such as laptops, smartphones, and tablets.

Called Spectra, this attack works against "combo chips," specialized chips that handle multiple types of radio wave-based wireless communications, such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, LTE, and others.

"Spectra, a new vulnerability class, relies on the fact that transmissions happen in the same spectrum, and wireless chips need to arbitrate the channel access," the research team said today in a short abstract detailing an upcoming Black Hat talk.
More particularly, the Spectra attack takes advantage of the coexistence mechanisms that chipset vendors include with their devices. Combo chips use these mechanisms to switch between wireless technologies at a rapid pace.
Click to expand...

Exploiting Spectra requires attacking a combo chip with malformed wireless traffic, and then attacking the chip interface between the two technologies.

Additional technical details about the attack have not yet been made public. The research team plans to provide a technical rundown during a virtual session at the Black Hat security conference in August.
An academic paper detailing the Spectra attack in greater depth will also be made available at the same time, in August.
Click to expand...

Log in or Sign up

New 'Spectra' attack breaks the separation between Wi-Fi and Bluetooth

guest Guest

Log in or Sign up

New 'Spectra' attack breaks the separation between Wi-Fi and Bluetooth

guest Guest

Useful Searches