Everything you need to know about Bluebugging and how to be safe

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Have you ever left your Bluetooth on accidentally before? As it usually happens, you pair your phone to the car stereo and then forget to turn off Bluetooth once you leave the car, or how about keeping the service on when paired with your wireless headphones on a metro route?

While the opening paragraph may seem sensational, there is a very real risk associated with leaving the Bluetooth services on your phone turned on.

Bluebugging is a slang for a form of Bluetooth based attack that allows hackers to access all the features of your phone. If you leave your Bluetooth on, and the phone is discoverable, it could potentially act as a gateway to your personal information for anyone who is within the range of ten meters from you.

Why 10 meters? Actually its more like 10 to 15 meters which is the transmitting range of a class 2 Bluetooth radio, commonly employed in modern devices. This is not limited to just your phones either, any device with a Bluetooth radio is susceptible to this attack. Threat actors can also extend that range by using a boosted antenna.

It was first discovered by German researcher Martin Herfurt in 2004 and was initially used to target laptops with Bluetooth radios. It focused on "bugging" laptops to eavesdrop on emails and other conversations.

The term "bugging" is normally used in context with phone tapping that is employed by legal authorities to gather evidence by listening to a suspects conversations.

With Bluebugging a threat actor does not need to have access to the physical device, he just needs to be within the operational range of the hack.

According to Techslang, the technique used differs from device to device. Devices that do not have Bluetooth protection, are more susceptible to the attacks.

The hacker initiates the attack by pairing with a victim's phone. When successful, the hacker then remotely installs a malware package to fake authorization.

Once a threat actor gains access to your device, he can read all your messages, monitor phone calls, see your contacts and browse through emails. Other data such as images and videos are not safe either.

The first thing you can do is to make sure you turn off Bluetooth when its not in use. It may seem like a hassle at first to keep turning it back on every time you want to pair but you get used to it.

The second thing you can do is to make sure that your device is not "discoverable" or "visible to other devices". You will usually find this setting in Bluetooth settings and they are on by default to help you quickly pair to other devices. Keep them turned off.

You can consider scrapping all the paired devices in your list that you don't frequently use. This will mean that you will have to pair them again when you want to use them but its better than potentially having your data stolen.

Be wary when connecting to unknown Wi-Fi networks or pairing with unrecognized devices, and make sure your device is always has the latest security updates installed.

Consider turning off "Auto-join" or "Quick-pair" which are great QOL features that let you connect quickly to known networks or pair with known devices. While these are great, a little inconvenience shouldn't you bother you too much, so turn them off.

After accessing public Wi-Fi networks, security researchers recommend you reset your phone to flush any unwanted data in the cache and to reset your radios. Never use personal names for device hotspot's that you create using your phone. That just makes you a big target.

Never open or enter any financial information over public Wi-Fi or Hotspots. Never use Bluetooth to share personal data.

If you suspect your phone has been hacked, look for any unwanted notifications that pop up or any new device that has been paired with your phone. In some cases, hacking can also slow down your phone, so that is a good indicator that someone is trying to get in.