A penetration tester is tasked with assessing the security of smart locks at a facility. These locks use a short-range wireless communication protocol often found in IoT devices. Which approach is MOST effective for gathering information that could facilitate unauthorized access?
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Employ a replay strategy with intercepted messages to gain unauthorized entry.
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Attempt to pair with the lock using a brute-force method to guess the key.
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Directly sniff ongoing traffic in hopes of intercepting sensitive data exchanges.
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Engage in passive eavesdropping to analyze communication patterns and intercept cryptographic keys.
When dealing with short-range wireless protocols utilized by many IoT devices, passive eavesdropping is a common initial attack vector. This technique allows the penetration tester to acquire a deep understanding of the communication patterns and encryption keys in use without alerting the system to their presence. By learning about the security mechanisms in play discreetly, more advanced and targeted attacks can be designed. Attempting to brute-force the key may be ineffective and alert administrators due to multiple failed attempts. Similarly, sniffing may only capture information while active transmission is taking place and could potentially be logged or noticed. Replay attacks require specific transaction conditions and timing, and modern devices often have measures in place such as timestamps and unique transaction identifiers to mitigate such threats.
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What are some common short-range wireless communication protocols used in IoT devices?
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What is passive eavesdropping and how does it differ from active sniffing?
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Why is brute-forcing a key generally ineffective against smart locks or IoT devices?