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Bluetooth Headphone Jacking: A Key to Your Phone [video]

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Re: Bluetooth Headphone Jacking: A Key to Your Phone [video]

#181

Post by girvo »

amelius wrote: post #73
dijit wrote: post #3

And everyone got mad at OpenBSD for refusing to develop bluetooth. It’s a messy standard and we shouldn’t be surprised that the race to the bottom has left some major gaps.. though Sony WH1000’s are premium tier hardware and they have no real excuses.. I always wondered how people could justify the growth of the bluetooth headphone market in such a way.. Everyone seems to use bluetooth headphones exclusively (in Swed…

Honestly, can't we just ditch BT and send audio over WiFi? One thing less to worry about.

That exists, using proprietary 2.4ghz dongles usually, but they’re much higher power draw.

Re: Bluetooth Headphone Jacking: A Key to Your Phone [video]

#182

Post by immibis »

wat10000 wrote: post #146
immibis wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Almost like there were at least three other features more important. The most important letters in English are E, T and A. I'm sure you won't notice if we remove H from all keyboards, right? After all, the survey says it's not in the top three. And given a choice between a keyboard without E and one without H, nobody buys the one without H, proving they really don't need the H.

Why wouldn’t some keyboard manufacturer realize that a lot of people actually do need all of the letters, sell a keyboard with all of them, and make bank? This theory that people want headphone jacks and phone makers won’t provide them makes no sense. It requires phone makers to be so cost conscious that they’ll remove a desirable feature to save a few cents, yet simultaneously so clueless that they won’t take advant…

Why would you make a keyboard with one more letter when everyone is buying ones without? Would you buy a keyboard with a ™ key? If not, why not?

Re: Bluetooth Headphone Jacking: A Key to Your Phone [video]

#183

Post by pamcake »

willnix wrote: post #110
miduil wrote: post #13

Glad this submission is finally receiving upvotes. This was just shown at the 39C3 in Hamburg, few days back. Common (unpached) Bluetooth headsets using Airoha's SoCs can be completely taken over by any unauthenticated bystander with a Linux laptop. (CVE-2025-20700, CVE-2025-20701, CVE-2025-20702) This includes firmware dumps, user preferences, Bluetooth Classic session keys, current playing track, ... > Examples of…

One of the researchers here. Many people seem to prefer text to videos, which I sympathize with. So please excuse me hijacking the top comment with links to our blog post and white paper: Blog: https://insinuator.net/2025/12/bluetooth-headphone-jacking-f... Paper: https://ernw.de/en/publications.html

This is one of the best exploit presentations I've seen, and that's without considering the twist at the end. Humbling and inspiring. Thank you!

Re: Bluetooth Headphone Jacking: A Key to Your Phone [video]

#184

Post by taneliv »

smallstepforman wrote: post #17

Most audiophiles ignore bluetooth headphones due to sound quality + latency, so we (audiophiles) stick to wired at home and we also have dedicated headphone amps since the pissy sound card D/A convertors are incredibly bad. Bluetooth only when I’m doing yard work. Sadly, modern music is tuned to crappy headphones, crappy car systems, crappy speakers … I miss the 80’s audiophile obsession, the equipment had heart, and…

From a security point of view music listening is quite marginal, I think. The vulnerable headsets make conversations trivial to eavesdrop.

Average communication input is in a noisy environment (colleagues, family, wind, equipment, car), and is compressed both in the dynamic range and bitrate sense before sending out. The transport medium then provides latency and packet loss. The fidelity of the audio equipment on the receiving side plays very little role. I imagine even audiophiles quite readily use even below mid-range wireless headsets for conversations, just because they are more convenient.

In other words, I don't take calls on my wired AKG headphones, even though my phone has a 3.5mm jack. I'm particularly fond of my €30 in-ear BT headset that provides good enough input and output even when I'm biking. I can't be bothered to check if the model is on the vulnerable devices list, the phone company / Meta / Alphabet / some governments and so on can surveil my communications anyway. Adding a random passer-by to the mix does not meaningfully increase the attack surface. Plus they might get to listen to awesome music, if I'm not on a call.

Re: Bluetooth Headphone Jacking: A Key to Your Phone [video]

#185

Post by amrocha »

cloudfudge wrote: post #149
barbazoo wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just don’t know a single real person that still wants to use wired earphones with their phone. To me it’s the same as complaining that an artist only has CDs, not records.

The security, performance, usability and reliability of wired headphones will always be superior to wireless. There is just no substitute for the simplicity of an uninterrupted piece of copper carrying an analog signal. The convenience of having no wires simply isn't worth the downgrade in these other aspects.

Your opinion is valid, but irrelevant. The above comment said that you’re a minority and that they’ve never met a person irl that shares your opinion. I can say I’ve also never met anyone who shares that opinion.

Also of note is that I used to care a lot about sound quality, and owned very expensive wired IEMs until 2 years ago. I was annoyed when I switched to a phone without a jack, but now I’m used to it and don’t particularly miss it.

Re: Bluetooth Headphone Jacking: A Key to Your Phone [video]

#186

Post by amrocha »

mjevans wrote: post #83
barbazoo wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just don’t know a single real person that still wants to use wired earphones with their phone. To me it’s the same as complaining that an artist only has CDs, not records.

I want to use the extremely simple and reliable direct interface and inexpensive cheap earphones and patch cables that I can buy in any reasonable electronics store for low markup. They are all passive components. Adding an external sound card introduces variables outside of manufacture control, the quality, latency, and drive power all at the mercy of some random integrator. My phone is easily thick enough to accomm…

That might all be true, but at the same time most people don’t care or prefer wireless earphones.

Re: Bluetooth Headphone Jacking: A Key to Your Phone [video]

#187

Post by jogu »

epakai wrote: post #136

Razer isn't mentioned, but I know they're using Airoha AB1571DN in Blackshark V3 Pro transmitter. Not sure what is on the headset end. Don't see any mentions on their last firmware update, and I can't find older ones.

Important to note that usage of an Airoha chip doesn’t imply being vulnerable, so each device has to be checked individually.

It’s possible they weren’t vulnerable to begin with, it’s also possible they silently patched it.

Re: Bluetooth Headphone Jacking: A Key to Your Phone [video]

#188

Post by jogu »

bethekidyouwant wrote: post #54

This is just a chip with debug mode left on and does not allow anyone to hijack audio stream or anything interesting. (Just in case anyone’s checking the comments because they don’t want to watch a long ass video and they notice all the comments are essentially off topic)

Sounds like you should have actually watched the “long ass video”.

It allows the pairing key to be exfiltrated from the compromised device and an external, attacker controlled device to perform any function the original device could. This includes retrieving the paired devices phone number, answering phone calls, and receiving the audio. They live demo hijacking a whatsapp account using this.

Re: Bluetooth Headphone Jacking: A Key to Your Phone [video]

#190

Post by kalleboo »

makeitdouble wrote: post #175
kalleboo wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can't you just leave a dongle on any wired headphones you have? Assuming you only use them with your phone and computer and don't have a CD player or something.

> Assuming you only use them with your phone This is really where it hits. Every other device has a proper jack, so the dongle needs to be kept somewhere every other time.

I guess that's my question, what other devices are people using? I'm just curious where people need to remove the dongle because maybe I have bad imagination but not much comes to mind.

I listen to music on earbuds on my phone on the go, a laptop at a cafe, and on my computer at my desk - all these have USB-C.

Even modern DAPs like Sony Walkman have USB-C as they are typically based on Android.

That leaves all the "legacy" devices that only a small minority use - home hi-fi stacks, vinyl record players, iPods, CD players, minidisc players?

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