ubertooth-btle - Man Page

ubertooth-btle -f [-A 37|38|39] [-r output.pcapng]

ubertooth-btle is a tool for doing Fun Stuff(TM) with BLE. It can do the following things:

• Sniff connections
• Interfere with connections
• Send advertising packets (experimental)

Sniffing connections is the most robust feature supported by ubertooth-btle. It has two primary modes of operation: follow mode and promiscuous mode.

Follow mode is the preferred mode for general use. In this mode, Ubertooth will listen on one of three advertising channels waiting for a BLE connection to be established. When a connection is established, Ubertooth will hop along the data channels, passively capturing the data sent between the central and peripheral. After the connection terminates, Ubertooth will return to the advertising channel and wait for another connection.

No-follow mode is similar to follow mode, but it only logs advertising packets and will not follow connections as they are established.

Promiscuous mode is an experimental mode for sniffing connections after they have already been established. This mode can be used to sniff long-lived connections.

When sniffing, Ubertooth can only operate in either follow mode or promiscuous mode, but not both at the same time. If you are unsure which mode to use, use follow mode.

By default, Ubertooth will follow any connection it observes. You can limit this to following a specific Bluetooth Address (BD ADDR) using the -t command line flag. For example, the following command will only sniff connections where the central or peripheral's BD ADDR is 22:44:66:88:AA:CC:

ubertooth-btle -f -t22:44:66:88:AA:CC

-t can also take a mask length in CIDR-like notation. Masks can be between 1 and 48 bits long, with a 48 bit mask matching the entire address. Using a /24 mask will filter on just the OUI. For example, to limit sniffing to just TI devices with the OUI 00:1A:7D, use the following:

ubertooth-btle -t 00:1A:7D:00:00:00/24

Filters persist until they are explicitly cleared or the system restarts (either via ubertooth-util -r or unplug/replug). To clear a filter, use the special filter none. Example:

ubertooth-btle -t none

When filtering, previous versions of the firmware would still log all advertising packets but only follow connections based on the filter parameters. As of 2018-06-R1, advertising packets that do not match the filter are dropped.

In all sniffing modes, Ubertooth can log data to PCAP or PcapNG with a variety of pseudoheaders. The recommended logging format is PcapNG (-r) or PCAP with LE Pseudoheader (-q). For compatibility with crackle (see [Using with Crackle][]), use PCAP with PPI (-c).

Interfering with connections is a feature for causing intentional interference with newly established or long-lived connections. When this attack succeeds, the BLE connection between the central and peripheral will be terminated. Pair the -i or -I flag with -f to interfere with new connections or -p to interfere with long-lived connections. Note that causing intentional interference may be illegal in your jurisdiction. Check your local laws before using this feature.

Finally, ubertooth-btle supports transmitting advertising packets with a specified BD ADDR. This feature, referred to as faux slave mode, is experimental and may not function as intended. Use at your own risk.

Sniff all connections on advertising channel 38, logging all data to PcapNG:

ubertooth-btle -f -A 38 -r log.pcapng

Log advertising packets without following connections:

ubertooth-btle -n

Interfere with connections recovered with promiscuous mode:

ubertooth-btle -p -I

Send advertising packets using BD ADDR 22:44:66:88:AA:CC:

ubertooth-btle -s22:44:66:88:AA:CC

• -h : Displays help message

Major modes:

• -f : Follow mode: sniff connections as they are established
• -n : No-follow mode: log advertising packets but don't follow connections
• -p : Promiscuous mode: sniff already-established connections
• -s<BD ADDR> :  Inject advertising packets using specified BD ADDR

Interference (pair with -f or -p):

• -i : Interfere with one connection and return to idle
• -I : Interfere continuously with many connections

Filtering:

• -t<BD ADDR> : Limit connection following and interference in follow mode to the specified BD ADDR

Logging:

• -r <output.pcapng> : Log to PcapNG (preferred)
• -q <output.pcap> : Log to PCAP with DLT_BLUETOOTH_LE_LL_WITH_PHDR
• -c <output.pcap> : Log to PCAP with PPI (for compatibility with crackle(1))

Miscellaneous:

• -A <37|38|39> : Which advertising channel to use in follow mode (default: 37)
• -a[address] : Get or set access address in promiscuous mode
• -v[01] : Get or set CRC verification (default: 0)
• -x<0-32> : Allow n access address violations (default: 32). Filtering occurs on host.

Data source:

• -U<0-7> : Which Ubertooth to use

crackle is a tool for cracking the BLE key exchange and decrypting encrypted data. To capture data for use with crackle, sniff connections in follow mode using -f and log data to PCAP/PPI using -c. Example:

ubertooth-btle -f -c crack.pcap

Refer to crackle documentation for further details.

crackle(1): ⟨https://github.com/mikeryan/crackle⟩

ubertooth-btle is Copyright (C) 2012-2018 Mike Ryan. This tool is released under the GPLv2. Refer to COPYING for futher details.

ubertooth(7).