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back to article What do you press when flaws in Bluetooth panic buttons are exposed?

Security researchers have uncovered flaws in Bluetooth-based panic buttons that, in a worst-case scenario, make the affected kit "effectively useless." Duo Labs put a range of Bluetooth-based personal protection devices – aka panic buttons – from ROAR, Wearsafem, and Revolar through their paces. These gadgets typically connect …

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  1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

    Really?

    A hoodie wearing miscreant is running up behind a woman on a dark street and the likely threat is that he will have pre-rigged a bunch of BT transmitters to jam all the available channels between the button and her phone?

    I know we have to panic about cybersecurity for everything now but really?

    5 4 Reply
    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Really?

      Maybe not - but how about a creepy taxi cab driver who doesn't want someone calling for help?

      Though I sort of agree, probably not the greatest IT security risk in the world. Now my plot to hack in to bluetooth headphones and hypnotise the wearers into acting like unaware zombies -that's going much better!

      13 0 Reply
      1. Lysenko
        Reply Icon

        Re: Really?

        Maybe not - but how about a creepy taxi cab driver who doesn't want someone calling for help?

        Such a person grabs a magnetron from an old microwave, plugs it into the cigarette lighter socket (via an inverter if necessary) and relaxes knowing that all 2.4GHz BT channels are jammed solid inside his vehicle (along with several blocks of cellphone spectrum in many cases). You can easily damp down the power to avoid damaging organics while still swamping feeble milliwatt transmitters.

        9 0 Reply
      2. Commswonk
        Reply Icon

        Re: Really?

        Now my plot to hack in to bluetooth headphones and hypnotise the wearers into acting like unaware zombies -that's going much better!

        Looking at some of the people I see walking around with headphones on I suggest that your plot succeeded perfectly quite some time ago.

        12 1 Reply
      3. goldcd
        Reply Icon

        Re: Really?

        Well they'd just jam the phone, wouldn't they?

        "Hmm will I jam BT to just block communication from the 0.001% of passengers with a bluetooth panic button, or block their phone that 99.9% in the back have?"

        5 0 Reply
      4. big_D Silver badge
        Reply Icon
        Paris Hilton

        Re: Really? @AC

        Judging by many people I see wearing headphones in public, somebody has already beaten you to it...

        1 1 Reply
        1. Anonymous Coward
          Reply Icon
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Really? @AC

          I'm insulted. My plan worked flawlessly, in fact so well that people don't give me the credit I'm due. Do you know how much it costs to get Ed Sheeran to record a subliminal message?

          2 0 Reply
    2. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      'A hoodie wearing miscreant is running up behind a woman on a dark street '

      A long-planned home invasion / burglary might be more likely...

      1 0 Reply
  2. JimmyPage Silver badge
    WTF?

    What moron would trust Bluetooth for anything critical ??????

    Especially if Android is involved ??????????????????????????

    It's enough problem playing the odd tune through my cars BT connection.

    9 2 Reply
    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Black Helicopters

      Re: What moron would trust Bluetooth for anything critical ??????

      Why does it need to communicate with anything else locally? Its basically a pet/granny tracker with a button on it. Why not just include the mobile phone and GPS chips inside it, like these other devices do?

      Black helicopter, because carrying an always-connected-to-the-network mobile phone can have its downsides if you are a protester, human rights worker, or the like - groups the Duo blog post suggests these devices are also used by.

      2 0 Reply
      1. Cuddles
        Reply Icon

        Re: What moron would trust Bluetooth for anything critical ??????

        "Why does it need to communicate with anything else locally? Its basically a pet/granny tracker with a button on it. Why not just include the mobile phone and GPS chips inside it, like these other devices do?"

        Cost. As far as I can tell, this is literally just a button with a bluetooth chip attached; when you press the button it's your phone that actually does all the work. Putting in GPS, GPRS (plus agreement with carrier), and the battery to run them would make it much bigger, heavier and more expensive. People are happy to put up with that when it means they can find their dog, especially if said dog has gone missing before. But even people who claim to be scared enough to need carry one of these things themselves don't actually expect to ever use it; a cheap placebo does the job just as well as a more expensive one, so no-one is willing to pay for something that actually works.

        0 0 Reply
    2. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      Re: What moron would trust Bluetooth for anything critical ??????

      I worked on one of the first bluetooth products (before it was on phones) - it was a man-overboard alarm for yachts.

      Every crew member had a BT transmitter attached. When the central server couldn't see one it sounded an alarm. The only way to go out of range was to go overboard, and since a failed xmitter, bad battery or dunking in sea water also disconnected it - it was pretty fail safe.

      1 0 Reply
      1. Anonymous Coward
        Reply Icon
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: The only way to go out of range was to go overboard,

        Or just drop a connection.

        If your system worked like my car/phone BT connection, you would never have set sail. At least *one* connection would be dropped every minute or so.

        0 0 Reply
    3. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: What moron would trust Bluetooth for anything critical ??????

      I can see why you'd have trouble with Bluetooth, if you approach it the same way as you do the "?" key.

      2 1 Reply
  3. choleric

    You call Hawaii

    I hear they have a very effective panic button.

    7 0 Reply
  4. Pen-y-gors

    More Bluetooth weirdness

    Saw an ad on amazon today for an electric toothbrush - with Bluetooth!

    It apparently connects to the toothbrush app. Which your dentist can access to set your tooth brushing programme.

    When I were a lad my Somali ayah coped perfectly well with a twig.

    Please, does anyone have a deep cave I can live in?

    5 0 Reply
    1. JimmyPage Silver badge
      Reply Icon
      Joke

      Re: More Bluetooth weirdness

      Ah, toothbrush with a computer ...

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQ4W7yB9Mow

      0 1 Reply
  5. Nimby
    Facepalm

    Don't Get It

    Like others have said, simple jamming techniques to create cell service blockers are already well known. Who would be so daft as to bother attacking a specific Bluetooth panic button when blocking all cell service is so cheap and easy? Not to mention the Taser shortly followed by the creepy panel van Faraday cage...

    Same as tracking someone by their vulnerable panic button being just as idiotic. Tracking by the vulnerable Bluetooth radio of the phone is easier and more widespread. Tracking the phone itself using a femtocell is even easier and broader yet.

    I'm guessing (hoping?) that such devices are more for "I've fallen, and I can't get up!" situations than for personal protection. But "there's a sucker born every minute," so who can say.

    0 0 Reply

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