Potential Bluetooth Vulnerabilities in Smartphones

Smartphone vendors have been increasingly integrating Bluetooth technology into their devices to increase accessible and convenience for users. As the current inclination of integrating PDA and telephony increase, the likelihood of sensitive information being stored on such a device is also increased. Potential Bluetooth vulnerabilities could provide alternative means to compromise Bluetooth-enable smartphones, leading to severe data breaches. This paper gives an insight on potential security vulnerabilities in Bluetooth-enabled smartphones and how these vulnerabilities may affect smartphone users. This paper is discussed from the viewpoint of Bluetooth weaknesses and implementation flaws, which includes pairing, weak key storage, key disclosure, key database modification, unit key weaknesses, manipulating sent data, locating tracking, implementation flaws, disclosure of undiscoverable devices, denial of service, device-based authentication, and uncontrolled propagation of Bluetooth waves, as well as Blueprinting and relay attacks.