detecting-bluetooth-low-energy-attacks

name	detecting-bluetooth-low-energy-attacks
description	Detects and analyzes Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) security attacks including sniffing, replay attacks, GATT enumeration abuse, and Man-in-the-Middle interception. Uses Ubertooth One and nRF52840 sniffers for packet capture, the bleak Python library for GATT service enumeration, and crackle for BLE encryption cracking. Use when assessing IoT device BLE security, monitoring for BLE-based attacks on wireless infrastructure, or performing authorized BLE penetration testing.
domain	cybersecurity
tags	["ble","bluetooth","ubertooth","nrf-sniffer","gatt","wireless-security","iot-security","replay-attack"]
subdomain	wireless-security
author	oyi77
version	1.0.0
license	Apache-2.0
nist_csf	["PR.IR-01","DE.CM-01","ID.AM-03"]

Detecting Bluetooth Low Energy Attacks

Overview

Cybersecurity skill for detecting bluetooth low energy attacks. Follows industry best practices and security standards.

When to Use

Trigger phrases:

• "detecting bluetooth low energy attacks"
• "Performing authorized BLE security assessments of IoT devices, medical devices,"
• "Monitoring a wireless environment for BLE-based replay attacks, spoofing, or una"
• "Analyzing BLE packet captures to detect Man-in-the-Middle attacks or pairing exp"

Use this skill when:

• Performing authorized BLE security assessments of IoT devices, medical devices, or smart locks
• Monitoring a wireless environment for BLE-based replay attacks, spoofing, or unauthorized enumeration
• Analyzing BLE packet captures to detect Man-in-the-Middle attacks or pairing exploitation
• Enumerating GATT services and characteristics to identify insecure read/write permissions on BLE peripherals
• Assessing BLE encryption strength and testing for crackable pairing exchanges
• Building BLE intrusion detection capabilities for wireless security monitoring

Do not use for intercepting BLE communications without explicit authorization. Do not deploy BLE scanning tools in environments where wireless monitoring is prohibited.

When NOT to Use

• When you lack proper authorization for testing
• For production systems without change management
• When the task requires legal or compliance expertise beyond technical scope

Prerequisites

• Ubertooth One hardware for passive BLE sniffing, or Nordic nRF52840 USB Dongle with nRF Sniffer firmware
• Python 3.10+ with pip
• bleak library: pip install bleak (cross-platform BLE GATT client)
• Wireshark with BLE dissector plugins for packet analysis
• crackle tool for BLE encryption analysis: built from source at github.com/mikeryan/crackle
• ubertooth-btle CLI tools: apt install ubertooth (Linux) or build from source
• Bluetooth 4.0+ adapter on the host system for bleak-based scanning
• Linux recommended for full Ubertooth/nRF sniffer support

Workflow

# Example: IOC detection
import re

IOC_PATTERNS = {
    "ip": r"\b(?:\d{1,3}\.){3}\d{1,3}\b",
    "domain": ,
    : ,
    : ,
}

 () -> :
     {k: re.findall(v, text)  k, v  IOC_PATTERNS.items()}