Can a bluetooth speaker contain malware? If someone were to find a random bluetooth speaker laying around and tries to connect with it, is there a possibility that the speaker has malware in it?
5
-
Yes. Any device that runs software can have malicious software. – David May 23 '18 at 22:55
-
@David do you know of any bluetooth media peripherals infecting a device? – J.A.K. May 23 '18 at 23:28
-
not if connected as an audio device. Unlike USB, there's no way for such a BT device to execute code since it can only act as an audio device. If you connect as a keyboard, then it's possible to do some fancy keywork, but not as a speaker. – dandavis May 24 '18 at 18:31
3
It is technically possible, because a Bluetooth device will likely contain firmware and a small CPU (so it's not just a dumb variable resistor and speaker driver). In a purely theoretical sense, it would be possible for malware in such a device to spread by exploiting a bug in the Bluetooth protocol to gain code execution or unauthorized access to another Bluetooth-capable device. However, the chances of this are so slim as to be utterly negligible. There are better ways to infect someone. You can safely disregard a Bluetooth speaker as a malware infection vector.
Regardless, it is not a bright idea to connect to something random you see lying around.
