I'd love to see something like this but the other way around - a native implementation of a Bluetooth mouse and keyboard in either Android, an iPhone or a RPi with a touchscreen. It would make life in a server rack so much easier if I didn't have to lug around a physical keyboard and mouse...
Show HN: Bluetooth USB Peripheral Relay – Bridge Bluetooth Devices to USB
51–60 of 119 posts
Re: Show HN: Bluetooth USB Peripheral Relay – Bridge Bluetooth Devices to USB
#52Earlier quoted context omitted.
IT departments that are too restrictive will soon find that people have a parallel world executing in Excel sheets and using some external messaging app to keep the company operations running despite IT efforts to ensure it doesn't - I mean to ensure it is "secure"...
My CTO is quite adamant that he hates shadow IT. Especially those with mac, full of... well software used by those artsy employees. Or with strange software not validated by the IT. Well. Other departments ask for equipment, but only hear no back. Management product like Monday? No. Dedicated solution for jobs they don't understand? Hell no! It's tough to be part of this. I know security is hard. Budget limit stuff.…
My company is the same, but it's not necessarily about it being "hard." It's about not hiring the right people.
My company's IT department is Windows clickops people who hire other Windows clickops people. When something goes wrong that requires the command line, they spend five figures on a consultant to fix it. Ditto for the few dozen Linux machines in the company.
Some of our departments, including mine, run Macs. I can't count the number of times I've had someone from IT tell me "OK, now click 'Start'…" or whatever the Windows convention is these days.
All they'd have to do is hire one guy who knows the command line, and one guy who knows how to support Macs. There must be a hundred people in the IT department, but they keep hiring the same type of people over and over.
I wish it was unique to my company, but there was an identical situation where I worked a few years ago.
Re: Show HN: Bluetooth USB Peripheral Relay – Bridge Bluetooth Devices to USB
#53> This project was born out of a desire to help a friend who couldn't use his favorite Bluetooth mouse and keyboard due to Bluetooth being disabled on his work laptop. Protip: If their company's IT section is like the one at my old company, they are quite unlikely to like this solution, either. But it's very clever. Kudos.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts, I had thought about this as well but came to the conclusion that from the company's perspective, this is no different than connecting a random keyboard bought from Amazon, what do you think? Another thought around this is that I don't even think there's anything intrinsically insecure about BT as an attack vector but most likely some old policy based on security issues that existe…
Secure bluetooth requires manufacturers to get the cryptography right. Even big brands like Logitech have gotten that wrong in recent memory, allowing attackers both to decrypt what you type [1] and to inject keystrokes [2]. And these are long-lived devices, even if vulnerabilities get patched in newer devices there are still plenty of 5 year old or older mice and keyboards with outdated firmware floating around. Not to mention the possibility of 0-days known to your attacker.
Wired connections are inherently more difficult to attack. In security critical applications banning bluetooth is perfectly reasonable.
Re: Show HN: Bluetooth USB Peripheral Relay – Bridge Bluetooth Devices to USB
#54> This project was born out of a desire to help a friend who couldn't use his favorite Bluetooth mouse and keyboard due to Bluetooth being disabled on his work laptop. Protip: If their company's IT section is like the one at my old company, they are quite unlikely to like this solution, either. But it's very clever. Kudos.
No, it's just a USB device at that point. Unless they are against USB mice and keyboards, it's fine.
Re: Show HN: Bluetooth USB Peripheral Relay – Bridge Bluetooth Devices to USB
#55Awesome! This will finally let me use bluetooth devices behind a KVM!
Re: Show HN: Bluetooth USB Peripheral Relay – Bridge Bluetooth Devices to USB
#56> This project was born out of a desire to help a friend who couldn't use his favorite Bluetooth mouse and keyboard due to Bluetooth being disabled on his work laptop. Protip: If their company's IT section is like the one at my old company, they are quite unlikely to like this solution, either. But it's very clever. Kudos.
The clever IT department will put hot glue in all USB ports.
Re: Show HN: Bluetooth USB Peripheral Relay – Bridge Bluetooth Devices to USB
#57Earlier quoted context omitted.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts, I had thought about this as well but came to the conclusion that from the company's perspective, this is no different than connecting a random keyboard bought from Amazon, what do you think? Another thought around this is that I don't even think there's anything intrinsically insecure about BT as an attack vector but most likely some old policy based on security issues that existe…
Secure bluetooth requires manufacturers to get the cryptography right. Even big brands like Logitech have gotten that wrong in recent memory, allowing attackers both to decrypt what you type [1] and to inject keystrokes [2]. And these are long-lived devices, even if vulnerabilities get patched in newer devices there are still plenty of 5 year old or older mice and keyboards with outdated firmware floating around. Not…
Same with keyboards and mouses which use insecure usb radio receivers. This company policy doesn't really prevent that.
The best way to correctly fight Shadow IT is to provide equipment and services so good nobody would even care using something else.
Re: Show HN: Bluetooth USB Peripheral Relay – Bridge Bluetooth Devices to USB
#58I can't get past someone not being allowed to turn on bluetooth!
My workplace doesn't even allow us to plug in (unapproved?) USB devices, so even this workaround likely wouldn't fly here.
Same here.
I once plugged my personal phone into the USB port of a random machine in the office to get a quick charge, and a guy from Information Security showed up in under ten minutes ready to have a heart attack.
Re: Show HN: Bluetooth USB Peripheral Relay – Bridge Bluetooth Devices to USB
#59> This project was born out of a desire to help a friend who couldn't use his favorite Bluetooth mouse and keyboard due to Bluetooth being disabled on his work laptop. Protip: If their company's IT section is like the one at my old company, they are quite unlikely to like this solution, either. But it's very clever. Kudos.
The clever IT department will put hot glue in all USB ports.
99% IPA will make it removable easily without dissolving it and will not damage any of the electronics.
Re: Show HN: Bluetooth USB Peripheral Relay – Bridge Bluetooth Devices to USB
#60A potential use case for this is using BT-only peripherals, like Apple Magic Trackpad/keyboard, with KVM/USB switches. Would this work? I’d buy one. I currently have to use Synergy to share peripherals between two MacBooks.
Have you tried usb? My Magic Trackpad and keyboard work fine without BT on both windows and pop os. Would love a way to actually disable the radios though.