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Bluetooth headsets vulnerable to hackers

By Duncan Graham-Rowe

24 April 2004

A SECURITY flaw could allow hackers to eavesdrop on cellphone conversations made on Bluetooth-based wireless headsets, it was revealed this week.

All that is needed to exploit the flaw is a piece of equipment called a “Bluetooth sniffer”, according to @Stake, the London-based security company that discovered it. The £3,000 device, which is normally used for testing, is a plug-in module for PCs that locks onto the Bluetooth signal.

When two devices begin to communicate via Bluetooth, they perform a “bonding” process by swapping identity information. It is during this authentication that the system is vulnerable, @Stake’s Ollie Whitehouse…

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