Comment on Hundreds of Millions of Audio Devices Need a Patch to Prevent Wireless Hacking and Tracking

fort_burp@feddit.nl ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

• Auth@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  A lot of people genuinely find Fast Pair to be a big improvement over traditional Bluetooth pairing. So why is it such a bad idea for a company to design a protocol that solves the problem? Also Bluetooth pairing has had its own share of vulnerabilities over the years this issue isnt really unique to Fast Pair.

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  • fort_burp@feddit.nl ⁨10⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    To each their own, no doubt. Personally I’m just in awe at how modern tech actually makes people tech-illiterate, and seemingly at a faster clip each year. Throw in an additional attack surface and that just makes it, for me, net minus. There are social and political implications to being tech-illiterate and tech-dependent (especially dependent on foreign and/or rogue states), which is another minus in my book.

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• zarenki@lemmy.ml ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  I think it’s far more common for devices to get pairing wrong than to get it right.

  Just a few of the very common issues I’ve seen in various devices:

  • TVs that are constantly in discoverable mode, even when the screen is off. Just in case the owner loses their remote and wants to pair a new one without reaching behind the TV to press a button. No way of avoiding this except disabling Bluetooth entirely, which makes the stock remote lose either partial or all functionality. Pairing requests also interrupt whatever you’re watching.
  • Audio devices that have a very short delay after turning on and waiting for any already-paired devices to connect before switching over to a pairing mode instead. So short that a smartphone in a low-power state (e.g. because you haven’t unlocked it for a few minutes) might not connect in time. Most if not all of the bluetooth-to-3.5mm receivers intended for older cars seem to share this problem.
  • Pairing codes are extremely underused in general, even among input devices. Most things seem to just pair with whoever sends a request first unconditionally.

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  • ragebutt@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    On this note: if you root your webos tv there’s an app to truly disable Bluetooth, assuming you don’t use it. Imagine my surprise when one day my tv turned on with a request to allow my neighbors phone to connect to it? Modern convenience. I’m sure my neighbor just fat fingered the device list while trying to connect something else but the fact that it was even an option is absurd

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    • zarenki@lemmy.ml ⁨19⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      My experience is mostly with Sony TVs, which run near-stock Android TV and do have a settings toggle to disable Bluetooth without needing root. Some models need BT for voice search (if mic is in the remote), and to many people losing that might be a good thing, but others seem to need it for basic menu navigation from the stock remote because odd features like trackpad don’t blast through IR. Considering how often I see unfamiliar TVs listed when I look at my phone’s Bluetooth pairing menu, I knew plenty of other TV vendors use constant discoverable mode.

      Having strangers within wireless range (especially for 2.4 GHz, but 5 GHz can be bad too) be able to intentionally and/or repeatedly interrupt what you’re doing with a pairing request at any time absolutely should be seen as a severe security flaw in my eyes. Even if they can’t successfully pair, the request prompt is akin to denial-of-service. Being such a blatant flaw that people often do it by mistake is even worse.

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• dance_ninja@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  I’d agree security needs more attention when developing protocols and products, and, I’d also consider Bluetooth simple. That being said, I know plenty of folks that don’t like the Bluetooth pairing process, especially those without a technical background.

  Fast Pair is really convenient, and I’d say it can open the door for a lot of new experiences, but I do wish the developers put more effort into their TARA.

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