this post was submitted on 08 Mar 2025

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Undocumented Commands Found In Bluetooth Chip Manufactured in China Used By a Billion Devices. (www.tarlogic.com)

submitted 1 day ago* (last edited 7 hours ago) by Tea to c/[email protected]

162 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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https://themarkup.org/blacklight?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.tarlogic.com%2Fnews%2Fbackdoor-esp32-chip-infect-ot-devices%2F&device=mobile&location=us-ca&force=false

Tarlogic Security has detected a backdoor in the ESP32, a microcontroller that enables WiFi and Bluetooth connection and is present in millions of mass-market IoT devices. Exploitation of this backdoor would allow hostile actors to conduct impersonation attacks and permanently infect sensitive devices such as mobile phones, computers, smart locks or medical equipment by bypassing code audit controls.

Update: The ESP32 "backdoor" that wasn't.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 hours ago

The rebuttal wasn't as comforting as some are making it out to be. They seem to be more interested in the semantics of it not being a backdoor tied to a specific product, which appears to be true.

Rather it is a potential for vulnerability that exists in all wireless implementation, which seems to me to be a bigger issue.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 6 hours ago (4 children)

Please update the title of this post to mention the update

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[–] [email protected] 22 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

This isn't a backdoor. Just a company trying to make name for themselves by sensationalizing a much smaller discovery.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

Seriously this. Every single IC which has digital logic contains some number of undocumented test commands used to ensure it meets all the required specifications during production. They're not intended to be used for normal operation and almost never included in datasheets.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago)

If anyone's ever followed console emulator development, they know those undocumented commands are everywhere. There's still people finding new ones for the N64 hardware

Edit: I should say undocumented behavior, not necessarily new commands

[–] [email protected] 13 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

Gotta blame China to get upvoted on Lemmy.

[–] Tja 5 points 3 hours ago

Or use a precise title. It's not a backdoor or a "backdoor".

[–] [email protected] 21 points 8 hours ago (3 children)

Fukin dmnit! I just spent the last several months fine tuning a PCB design supporting this platform. I have , what i believe to be my last iteration, being sent to fab now. I have to look i to this. My solution isnt using bluetooth, so i dont know if im vulnerable.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 minutes ago

Go for it. It’s a bullshit attention grab. No backdoor, just some undocumented vendor commands (which is the norm for virtually every chip out there).

[–] mousetail 3 points 2 hours ago

The exploit requires physical access. It's not exploitable in 99% of cases

[–] [email protected] 10 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago)

Its not a backdoor, you're most likely fine.

[–] [email protected] 34 points 9 hours ago

Weird that they removed the reference to ESP32, one of the most common and widely known microcontrollers, from the headline.

[–] [email protected] 74 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

This sounds like there are some undocumented opcodes on the HCI side -- the Host Computer Interface -- not the wireless side. By itself, it's not that big a deal. If someone can prove that there's some sort of custom BLE packet that gives access to those HCI opcodes wirelessly, I'd be REALLY concerned.

But if it's just on the host side, you can only get to it if you've cracked the box and have access to the wiring. If someone has that kind of access, they're likely to be able to flash their own firmware and take over the whole device anyway.

Not sure this disclosure increases the risk any. I wouldn't start panicking.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

So explained to me, a tech illiterate in comparison, this is China bad scaremongering?
'Backdoor' sounds malicious with intent.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago) (2 children)

The article is a security company trying to hype their company with a theoretical attack that currently has no hypothetical way to be abused

The article has an update now fixing the wording to "hidden feature" but, spoilers, every BT device has vendor specific commands.

The documentation of the part just wasn't complete and this companies "fuzzing" tool found some vendor commands that weren't in the data sheet

The China part just came from OP

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

The article is a security company ~~trying to hype their company~~ ruining their reputation in an incredibly ill-thought out attack that companies will ABSOLUTELY remember.

Even worse, it just makes this security company look incompetent. Like a home security company that announces a huge vulnerability in Schlage locks- there's a key that can unlock the lock included with every lock sold!!11!!!11!one!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 hours ago

I agree, but unfortunately, this has become common since Heartbleed, and they seem to be able to sell their snake oil to CTOs...

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 hours ago

thank you

[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 hours ago (3 children)

This turned racist / xenophobic real quickly.

There have been several other posts about this without mentioning China at all, especially in the post itself.

No where in the article does it say "chinese", literally anywhere.

The chip is MANUFACTURED in China.

Check your racism.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago) (2 children)

I agree we shouldn't be racist against Chinese people, but you're ignorant. From wikipedia: ESP32 is created and developed by Espressif Systems, a Chinese company based in Shanghai, and is manufactured by TSMC using their 40 nm process.It is a successor to the ESP8266 microcontroller.

So it's designed/developed in China and manufactured in Taiwan; not China.

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[–] Tea 7 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago) (4 children)

I actually wanted to keep the title short, but I think it would be better to edit the title to avoid any confusion to make it clear that it's manufactured in China, rather than saying it in the current way.

Edit: I edited the title to reflect the details better.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 hours ago

So instead of blatant racism based on a lie, you're just going to dogwhistle racism based on a lie.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

No. Fuck the Chinese. All 17billion of them.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 hours ago

17billion of them.

Xi had a clone army?

🤔

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