“Man in the Middle” Attacks on Bluetooth

Bluetooth is a short range wireless communication technology that has been designed to eliminate wires between both stationary and mobile devices. As wireless communication is much more vulnerable to attacks, Bluetooth provides authentication and encryption on the link level. However, the employed frequency hopping spread spectrum method can be exploited for sophisticated man in the middle attacks. While the built-in point-to-point encryption could have offered some protection against man in the middle attacks, a flaw in the specification nullifies this countermeasure.