Android flaw lets hackers send malware over Bluetooth

There are some who advise that we should turn off Bluetooth on our phones unless we absolutely need it. This might be a bit difficult due to the number of wireless devices we own, such a headphones, speakers, and also our cars which we connect our phones to. But now it looks like there might be a compelling reason to do so.

According to a recently discovered Android security flaw by the folks at ERNW, they have discovered a vulnerability called BlueFrag which they claim allows hackers to send malware to phones and steal data from devices through Bluetooth. All these attackers would need to know is your device’s Bluetooth MAC address and they should be good to go.

This seems to be a rather simplistic but yet devastating attack if properly exploited, and the bad news is that it also appears to affect relatively newer versions of Android, such as Android 8.0 and Android 9.0. It is possible that it could even affect older versions of Android, but the researchers did not evaluate older releases yet.

The good news is that the latest February security patch for Android should pretty much close that vulnerability, so if you have yet to install it (what are you waiting for?), then perhaps you should. In the meantime, it might not be the worst idea to turn of Bluetooth if and when you’re not using it.

Source: Engadget