Bluetooth Security Features On The Tablet And Smartphone - Blackberry PlayBook Security Technical Overview

Security Technical Overview
• Removes the Bluetooth connection with the smartphone

Bluetooth security features on the tablet and smartphone

The following security features on the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet and BlackBerry smartphone enhance the
existing protection for Bluetooth technology on the tablet and smartphone.
You can use the BlackBerry Enterprise Server to set IT policy rules in the Bluetooth policy group that are designed
to control the behaviour of Bluetooth enabled smartphones. For more information about the IT policy rules, see
the BlackBerry Enterprise Server Policy Reference Guide. For more information about configuring IT policy rules,
see the BlackBerry Enterprise Server Administration Guide.
Security feature
Limit paired Bluetooth enabled devices You can use the Disable Pairing IT policy rule to prevent a BlackBerry
Limited use of serial port profiles
Use of Bluetooth pairing process to help
prevent passive attack
Protection of the Bluetooth encryption
key
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Description
smartphone user from pairing a smartphone with a Bluetooth enabled
device other than their tablet. After the smartphone pairs with the
tablet, you can use this rule to prevent the smartphone from pairing with
other Bluetooth enabled devices.
You can also use application control policy rules to prevent third-party
applications from accessing Bluetooth technology on smartphones.
The tablet uses the Bluetooth Serial Port Profile only, which allows you
to use application control policy rules to turn off all the other profiles on
the smartphone and prevent third-party applications from using the
smartphone or tablet.
Smartphones support only seven of the available Bluetooth profiles. The
user can control pairing requests and the number of Bluetooth enabled
devices that the user can pair with is limited.
During the Bluetooth pairing process, the tablet uses a random key
(unlike the hard-coded keys that headsets and other Bluetooth enabled
smartphones use).
A user starts the Bluetooth pairing process from the tablet or
smartphone. If a message prompts the user to type a pairing password
when the user did not start a pairing process, the user knows that
another Bluetooth enabled device, which the user might not want to
connect to, started the pairing process. The Bluetooth pairing process is
designed to help prevent a passive attack where a potentially malicious
user tries to search for the smartphone PIN or tablet PIN.
After the user resets the tablet, a smartphone can perform the Bluetooth
pairing process and BlackBerry Bridge pairing process to reconnect to
the tablet. If the smartphone was the last smartphone to connect to the
Bluetooth security features on the tablet and smartphone