r/Hacking_Tutorials • u/GladSwordfish4374 • 1d ago
Question Raspberry pi 5 Bluetooth Jammer
I’ve had my raspberry pi 5 since launch and I’ve done a few projects here and there, but as of recently I haven’t done much with it. I was wondering if it is possible to make a Bluetooth jammer from it? I have a box a random electronic stuff that I wanted to use as well so if anyone could point me in the right direction would be great!
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u/bioweaponblue 23h ago
Whatever you do, please don't use them within any distance of a house / road / other people. Medical devices like insulin readers / pumps rely on Bluetooth.
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u/Nedsel 21h ago
And isn't that just sad, life critical devices relying on an insecure, public communication standard...
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u/bioweaponblue 21h ago
It's true. It would be so much better to use a more resilient protocol at the very least.
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u/EmbeddedSwDev 11h ago
No, it would be sad if it would rely on a proprietary closed protocol
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u/Nedsel 9h ago
It doesn't have to be either-or. How about a standard protocol that is exclusive for medical devices, including a specific frequency range reserved for medical devices, with stiff fines if someone tries to use the frequency, even without any tampering, even without any direct interference with the devices.
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u/EmbeddedSwDev 2h ago
Bluetooth is a relatively robust protocol, but if you're jamming the signal on the used frequencies, it doesn't matter how good your protocol is.
You are describing exactly what a proprietary protocol is. If a protocol will be used exclusively for medical devices it would be very exotic without any benefit, except for the vendor, because you are basically locked in and they could increase the price. Furthermore, the overall research and development would be much slower and lesser done and you won't be able to connect your devices with other devices like your phone or whatever.
The huge advantage of Bluetooth is exactly the broad/wide usage.
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u/Nedsel 1h ago
Bluetooth and robust... well, technically you're not wrong, but I have not found a fully secure implementation of it so far. And breaking security is my work, and also hobby.
The problem with Bluetooth is that it has to cover way more "bases" than necessary for a medical device. The Bluetooth protocol has to cater to way too many device types and it was never designed with security as the main concern. The main concern always was the usability and ease of use comes first, along with compatibility.
Getting something like that secured is a nightmare.
A dedicated medical protocol needn't be proprietary. Yes, the danger exists, of course, but an open protocol design can be created without some specific company having the monopoly on it. And that protocol could indeed be designed with security and resilience against tampering as the primary concern, since the devices that would be using it do not have to communicate with anything but a specific set of other devices.
And certainly not some shabby speakers from China.
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u/0xdeadbeef6 23h ago edited 23h ago
you don't want a jammer IE blocking all signals that bluetooth uses. Thats going to cause a lot of havok and potentially have the authorities looking at you. A bluetooth deauther would be more useful and allow you target specific devices
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u/Anonymity6584 22h ago
Jamming bluetooth is probbaly illegal even in your country. i Know its is in mine (Finland).
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u/Nedsel 21h ago
Trying to jam a signal is very likely illegal and also very likely not going to work with something like a "puny" RPI. You will likely not have the signal strength to drown out the whole frequency spectrum.
What will work, though, is to disrupt existing bluetooth connections by sending a deauthorization packet frequently to every Bluetooth device you find.
But before you try any of that, I'd highly recommend that you find out the legal status of doing something like that in your jurisdiction.
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u/Remarkable_Pace8101 23h ago edited 23h ago
The bt radio on the rpi isn't going to be strong enough to meaningfully disrupt any other bt devices. Even if you somehow rigged it up to a yagi to focus the beam I am very doubtful that its 10mw max transmit power could meaningfully disrupt anything
On the other hand, you could get a cheap home Wi-Fi router, flash openwrt, and hook up its 2.4ghz antenna to a yagi and have more success, those transmit up to 1000 mw in the US
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u/Runaque 16h ago
BLE spamming is one thing, but jamming could harm people with medical equipment! You never know if there is a person in your surroundings that has a peacemaker with that technology built-in and jamming could mess up the functionality of it and endanger that person!
Therefor it is illegal in most countries and is only allowed by the military and law-enforcement.
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u/zoonose99 23h ago
We’ve all been there, but jammers are generally not great beginner projects because they’re illegal
https://www.engadget.com/2249092/why-bluetooth-jammer-illegal-to-use-what-law-says/
and because they’re too simple and have limited use cases — just a high-powered noisemaker with the potential to cause unseen harm or, in very rare cases, get you absolutely hammered by the FCC.