Bluetooth Low Energy denial of service attacks

The Bluetooth Low Energy denial of service attacks are a series of denial-of-service attacks against mobile phones and iPads via Bluetooth Low Energy that can make it difficult to use them.[1]

iPhone and iPad attacks

DEFCON proof of concept attack

At DEF CON 31 in 2023, a demonstration was given using equipment made with a Raspberry Pi, a Bluetooth adapter and a couple of antennas.[1] This attack used Bluetooth advertising packets, hence did not require pairing.[1] The demonstration version claimed to be an Apple TV and affected iOS 16.[1]

Flipper Zero attack

This attack also uses Bluetooth advertising packets to repeatedly send notification signals to iPhones and iPads running iOS 17. It uses a Flipper Zero running third-party Xtreme firmware. It functions even when the device is in airplane mode, and can only be avoided by disabling Bluetooth from the device's Settings app.[1][2][3]

The attack can cause the device to crash.[2] It also affects iOS 17.1.[4]

The release of iOS 17.2 made devices more resistant to the attack, reducing the flood of popup messages.[5]

An app to perform these attacks was written for Android.[6]

Interference with a medical device

An attendee of Midwest FurFest 2023 tweeted that the Android device they used to control their insulin pump had been crashed by a BLE attack and that if they hadn't been able to fix it they would have had to go to a hospital.[6]

Wall of Flippers

The Wall of Flippers project has written a Python script that can scan for BTLE attacks.[6] It can run on Linux or Microsoft Windows.[6]

Android attack

The Flipper Zero version of the attack has been adapted to attack Android and Microsoft Windows systems.[7][3]

References

1. Winder, Davey (2023-09-06). "New iPhone iOS 16 Bluetooth Hack Attack—How To Stop It". Forbes. Retrieved 2023-11-13.
2. Kingsley-Hughes, Adrian (2023-10-16). "Flipper Zero can be used to crash iPhones running iOS 17, but there's a way to foil the attack". ZDNET.
3. Goodin, Dan (2023-11-02). "This tiny device is sending updated iPhones into a never-ending DoS loop". Ars Technica. Retrieved 2023-11-13.
4. Kingsley-Hughes, Adrian (2023-10-30). "iOS 17.1 update still no defense against Flipper Zero iPhone crashes". ZDNET.
5. Kingsley-Hughes, Adrian (2023-12-15). "iOS 17.2 update puts an end to Flipper Zero's iPhone shenanigans". ZDnet. Retrieved 2023-12-16.
6. Toulas, Bill (2023-12-23). "'Wall of Flippers' detects Flipper Zero Bluetooth spam attacks". Bleeping Computer. Retrieved 2024-01-05.
7. Kingsley-Williams, Adrian (2023-10-24). "Now Android and Windows devices aren't safe from Flipper Zero either". ZDNET.