CAPEC Details
Name Bluetooth Impersonation AttackS (BIAS)
Likelyhood of attack Typical severity
Medium High
Summary An adversary disguises the MAC address of their Bluetooth enabled device to one for which there exists an active and trusted connection and authenticates successfully. The adversary can then perform malicious actions on the target Bluetooth device depending on the target’s capabilities.
Prerequisites Knowledge of a target device's list of trusted connections.
Execution Flow
Step Phase Description Techniques
1 Explore [Find disguise and target] The adversary starts the Bluetooth service on the attacking device and searches for nearby listening devices.
  • Knowledge of a trusted MAC address.
  • Scanning for devices other than the target that may be trusted.
2 Experiment [Disguise] Using the MAC address of the device the adversary wants to impersonate, they may use a tool such as spooftooth or macchanger to spoof their Bluetooth address and attempt to authenticate with the target.
3 Exploit [Use device capabilities to accomplish goal] Finally, if authenticated successfully the adversary can perform tasks/information gathering dependent on the target's capabilities and connections.
Solutions Disable Bluetooth in public places. Verify incoming Bluetooth connections; do not automatically trust. Change default PIN passwords and always use one when connecting.
Related Weaknesses
CWE ID Description
CWE-290 Authentication Bypass by Spoofing
Related CAPECS
CAPEC ID Description
CAPEC-616 An adversary provides a malicious version of a resource at a location that is similar to the expected location of a legitimate resource. After establishing the rogue location, the adversary waits for a victim to visit the location and access the malicious resource.