Abstract:
Bluetooth is popular technology for short-range communications and is incorporated in
mobile devices such as smartphones, tablet computers and laptops. Vulnerabilities associated
with Bluetooth technology led to improved security measures surrounding Bluetooth
connections. Besides the improvement in security features, Bluetooth technology is
still plagued by vulnerability exploits. This paper explores the development of a physical
Bluetooth C&C channel, moving beyond previous research that mostly relied on simulations.
In order to develop a physical channel, certain requirements must be fulfilled and
specific aspects regarding Bluetooth technology must be taken into consideration. To
measure performance, the newly designed Bluetooth C&C channel is executed in a
controlled environment using the Android operating system as a development platform.
The results show that a physical Bluetooth C&C channel is indeed possible and the paper
concludes by identifying potential strengths and weaknesses of the new channel.
