Method and Apparatus for Secure Pairing of Bluetooth Devices

• US 20080268776A1
• Filed: 04/25/2007
• Published: 10/30/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 04/25/2007
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: General Instrument Corporation (CommScope Holding Company, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: General Instrument Corporation (CommScope Holding Company, Inc.)
• Inventors: Amendola, Raffaele G.
• Application Number:
  US11/739,943
• Publication Number:
  US 20080268776A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/41.2
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/06 Authentication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/50 Secure pairing of devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/65 Environment-dependent, e.g. using captured environmental data
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/005 Discovery of network devices, e.g. terminals

Abstract

Embodiments of the invention generally provide a method and apparatus for secure pairing of Bluetooth devices that supports the detection of man-in-the-middle attacks. One embodiment of a method for pairing a first Bluetooth device and a second Bluetooth device includes sending, by the first Bluetooth device, a series of audio tones to the second Bluetooth device, comparing the series of audio tones to a verification value computed by the second Bluetooth device and pairing with the second Bluetooth device if the verification value corresponds to the series of audio tones. Another embodiment of a method for pairing a first Bluetooth device and a second Bluetooth device includes receiving, at the second Bluetooth device, a series of audio tones from the first Bluetooth device, comparing the series of audio tones to a first verification value computed by the second Bluetooth device and pairing with the first Bluetooth device if the series of audio tones corresponds to the first verification value.

Claims

1. A computer readable medium containing an executable program for pairing a first Bluetooth device and a second Bluetooth device, where the program performs:

sending, by the first Bluetooth device, a series of audio tones to the second Bluetooth device;

comparing the series of audio tones to a first verification value computed by the second Bluetooth device; and

pairing with the second Bluetooth device if the first verification value corresponds to the series of audio tones.

2. The computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein at least the first Bluetooth device includes a limited user interface.

3. The computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the sending comprises:

computing a second verification value; and

translating the second verification value into the series of audio tones.

4. The computer readable medium of claim 3, wherein a mapping provides an audio tone mapped to each data element.

5. The computer readable medium of claim 4, wherein the mapping further includes at least one audio tone mapped to a control signal.

6. The computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the first verification value and the second verification value are numeric values as defined by the Secure Simple Pairing documentation.

7. A computer readable medium containing an executable program for pairing a first Bluetooth device and a second Bluetooth device, where the program performs the steps of:

receiving, at the second Bluetooth device, a series of audio tones from the first Bluetooth device;

comparing the series of audio tones to a first verification value computed by the second Bluetooth device; and

pairing with the first Bluetooth device if the series of audio tones corresponds to the first verification value.

8. The computer readable medium of claim 7, wherein at least the first Bluetooth device includes a limited user interface.

9. The computer readable medium of claim 7, further comprising:

translating the series of audio tones into a second verification value, in accordance with a mapping of data elements to audio tones.

10. The computer readable medium of claim 9, wherein the mapping further includes at least one audio tone mapped to a control signal.

11. The computer readable medium of claim 7, wherein the pairing comprises:

informing a user as to whether the series of audio tones corresponds to the first verification value; and

soliciting instruction from the user as to whether to continue a pairing process with the first Bluetooth device.

12. The computer readable medium of claim 7, wherein the first verification value and the second verification value are numeric values as defined by the Secure Simple Pairing documentation.

13. A system, comprising:

a first Bluetooth device for sending a series of audio tones; and

a second Bluetooth device for receiving the series of audio tones and for comparing a first verification value represented by the series of audio tones to a second verification value,

where the first Bluetooth device and the second Bluetooth are configured for pairing with each other if the first verification value matches the second verification value.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein at least the first Bluetooth device includes a limited user interface.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein the first Bluetooth device further comprises a processor for computing the first verification value and for translating the first verification value into the series of audio tones.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein a mapping provides an audio tone mapped to each data element that can possibly be used in the first verification value.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the mapping further includes at least one audio tone mapped to a control signal.

18. The system of claim 13, wherein the first verification value and the second verification value are numeric values as defined by the Secure Simple Pairing documentation.

19. The system of claim 13, wherein the second Bluetooth device further comprises a processor for translating the series of audio tones into the first verification value, in accordance with a mapping of data elements to audio tones.

20. The system of claim 13, wherein the second Bluetooth device further comprises:

an interface for informing a user as to whether the first verification value matches the second verification value; and

an interface for soliciting instruction from the user as to whether to continue a pairing process with the first Bluetooth device.