BALSA: Bluetooth Low Energy Application Layer Security Add-on

Abstract

Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) is ideally suited to exchange information between mobile devices and Internet-of-Things (IoT) sensors. It is supported by most recent consumer mobile devices and can be integrated into sensors enabling them to exchange information in an energy-efficient manner. However, when BLE is used to access or modify sensitive sensor parameters, exchanged messages need to be suitably protected, which may not be possible with the security mechanisms defined in the BLE specification. Consequently we contribute BALSA, a set of cryptographic protocols, a BLE service and a suggested usage architecture aiming to provide a suitable level of security. In this paper we define and analyze these components and describe our proof-of-concept, which demonstrates the feasibility and benefits of BALSA.