Valet attack on privacy: a cybersecurity threat in automotive Bluetooth infotainment systems

Abstract Modern automobiles are equipped with connectivity features to enhance the user’s comfort. Bluetooth is one such communication technology that is used to pair a personal device with an automotive infotainment unit. Upon pairing, the user could access the personal information on the phone through the automotive head unit with minimum distraction while driving. However, such connectivity introduces a possibility for privacy attacks. Hence, performing an in-depth analysis of the system with privacy constraints is extremely important to prevent unauthorized access to personal information. In this work, we perform a systematic analysis of the Bluetooth network of an automotive infotainment unit to exploit security and privacy-related vulnerabilities. We model the identified threat with respect to privacy constraints of the system, emphasize the severity of attacks through a standardized rating metric and then provide potential countermeasures to prevent the attack. We perform System Theoretic Process Analysis for Privacy as a part of the systematic analysis and use the Common Vulnerability Scoring System to derive attack severity. The identified vulnerabilities are due to design flaws and assumptions on Bluetooth protocol implementation on automotive infotainment systems. We then elicit the vulnerability by performing a privacy attack on the Automotive system in an actual vehicle. We use Android Open-Source Project to report our findings and propose defense strategies.