Octopus Overlords

An attack scenario includes an adversary identifying Bluetooth devices nearby and using commonly tools to identify the MAC address of vulnerable Bluetooth devices.

“By probing the device, the attacker can determine which operating system his victim is using, and adjust his exploit accordingly. The attacker will then exploit a vulnerability in the implementation of the Bluetooth protocol in the relevant platform and gain the access he needs to act on his malicious objective,” researchers wrote.

At this stage the attacker can choose to create a Man-in-the-Middle attack and control the device’s communication, or take full control over the device and use it for a wide array of cybercriminal purposes, researchers stated.