Saint Spectra, Who Breaks the Wall Between Radios

Patron of Wi-Fi and Bluetooth combo chips, radio coexistence, and anyone who thinks two separate components stay separate.

Life

Jiska Classen and Francesco Gringoli described Spectra, a class of flaws in the Broadcom and Cypress combo chips found in iPhones, MacBooks and Galaxy phones. Wi-Fi and Bluetooth run on separate cores of the same chip and exchange coexistence information over an internal interface, bypassing the operating system. By abusing that interface, one radio could crash, leak data from, or run code on the other, with the operating system powerless to stop it.

Prayer

O Saint Spectra, who crosses the wall between two neighbouring radios, let our chips confide no more than they should. Amen.

How to celebrate

Celebrated by installing the Bluetooth firmware update that fixes coexistence, and keeping the radio you don't need switched off.

Two radios in one chip share one secret.