Make your Bluetooth Low Energy connection secure using BleuIO

Protection of private information is essential for every wireless low energy device, from fitness band to payment systems. Privacy mechanisms prevent devices from being tracked by untrusted devices.

Secure communications keep data safe while also preventing unauthorized devices from injecting data to trigger the system’s unintended operation.

In Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), devices connected to a link can pass sensitive data by setting up a secure encrypted connection, which means making the data unreadable to all but the Bluetooth master and slave devices.

BleuIO has introduced security feature into its latest release (firmware v1.3.0 ). User can now use Numeric Comparison, Just Works or Passkey Entry to make data transmission more secure when working with Bluetooth low energy application using BleuIO. 

• Numeric Comparison: In this scenario, both devices have a display unit capable of displaying a six-digit number. Both displays output the same number, and the user is asked to confirm that these numbers match. 
• Passkey Entry: The Passkey Entry is primarily intended for the case that one device has a keyboard but no display unit and the other device has at least a display unit, for example, a PC and a BLE keyboard scenario. The user is shown a six-digit number (from “000000” to “999999”) on the device with a display and then is asked to enter the number on the other device. If the value entered on the second device is correct, the pairing is successful.
• Just Works: This model is primarily intended for the most constrained devices in terms of I/O. The Just Works association model uses the Numeric Comparison protocol, but the user is never shown a number, and the application may simply ask the user to accept the connection. This method doesn’t offer protection against a Man in the Middle (MITM) attack, but it provides the same protection level against passive eavesdropping as the Numeric Comparison.

Use the following AT commands to apply secure connection.

AT Commands :

• AT+SETPASSKEY for setting or querying set passkey for passkey authentication.
• AT+SECLVL for setting or querying minimum security level used when connected to other devices.
• AT+NUMCOMPA for accepting a numeric comparison authentication request or enabling/disabling auto-accepting numeric comparisons.

Following video shows how to pair between two BleuIO devices and apply above mentioned security.