Technology Insights

btscanner: Update OUI List – Vendor Organizationally Unique Identifier List

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If you use btscanner, which is a Bluetooth scanner found in Backtrack Linux, a lot like I do then you will notice that the Public OUI list included is pretty far out of date. The OUI or Organizationally Unique Identifier list is what matches MAC addresses to manufacturers or vendors. This is how you can determine who produced a specific product that is talking on a network for instance a Bluetooth device that is attempting to communicate with your phone or your computer.

Technology Insights

Bluetooth CoD: Bluetooth Class of Device/Class of Service Explained

Insights5 Comments

While testing some tools in Backtrack Linux I was working with some Bluetooth tools including btscanner, BlueProPro, bluediving, etc. and wanted to know more about the Bluetooth Class of Device/Class of Service also know as just Bluetooth CoD. Not only how it was formatted but also what exactly it meant and what it could tell me exactly about Bluetooth devices. In the end I feel I have a pretty good understanding of Bluetooth CoD and what it can tell you about various hardware devices even though it appears the standard for assigning CoD numbers is fairly loose most people appear to adhere to it somewhat. It should be noted that Bluetooth CoD is easily modified such as on Linux you can set it using hciconfig and thus could provide fasle information if you wanted to do so. Obviously not many people are going to understand this or know how to accomplish this so typically if you are scanning for Bluetooth devices you will be getting whatever the manufacturer has set when the item was manufactured. Below we describe more specifics about Bluetooth CoD including what the CoD hex means and some examples of Bluetooth CoD. Check out our Bluetooth Class list by clicking here.

Code Snippets

Add New Item To Backtrack Linux Backtrack Menu

Code SnippetsLeave a comment

I recently wrote an article about how to fix btscanner in Backtrack Linux and realized after the article was completed that some people may prefer to launch btscanner via the menu in Backtrack Linux instead of the command terminal by typing btscanner. This article specifically explains how to add btscanner back to the menu in Backtrack Linux under Backtrack > Information Gathering > Wireless Analysis > BlueTooth Analysis > btscanner. The information could however apply to any tools you wanted to manually add to the Backtrack menu by modifying each variable accordingly.

Information Security

btscanner Brute Force Bluetooth Crashes On Backtrack 5 R3

Security3 Comments

I have been playing around with some of the bluetooth tools within Backtrack recently and btscanner is one of the main tools I have bene using. The btscanner application in Backtrack Linux provides two bluetooth scanning functions it calls inquiry scanning and brute force scanning. Unfortunately the package installed with Backtrack 5 release 3 will crash when attempting to use it for brute force scanning however I was able to create a fix that isn’t too messy to accomplish. Below we describe the btscanner crash in more detail and provide a way to get btscanner bluetooth brute forcing operating properly.