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  #1  
Old 05-12-2009, 11:00 AM
Chris Gohlke
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Default Phoenix Freeze Bluetooth Authentication

http://www.phoenixfreeze.com/

"Often the best ideas are the simplest. A laptop which locks itself as you walk away with your Blackberry® or iPhone™ and unlocks as you return. Cool, easy, secure! Just think of the benefits: One: More security - Freeze is designed to lock an XP or Vista based laptop when you walk away from it and unlock it when you return. All you need to activate the service is a Bluetooth® enabled mobile phone. Once you step out of the "zone of safety" your laptop is locked and your data is safe."

On the surface this looks pretty cool, I've seen versions of this idea using proprietary hardware, but letting it use a Bluetooth device you already have is a unique way to deal with it.  Probably more than adequate for the home user, but without some further research, I'm not sure Bluetooth security is robust enough to make this the only form of authentication used on a corporate network.  However, as part of a well-designed multi-factor authentication system, it certainly has potential. Notebooks.com has a video showing how this works.

 
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  #2  
Old 05-12-2009, 01:15 PM
stlbud
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Posts: 238

I've used Bluetooth Lock http://btprox.sourceforge.net/ It's free and open source.

The problem I had was range. If I'm at a conference and leave my table I would have to leave the room before it locked the screen. Same thing at work. In a cubicle farm, I would have to go 20 or 30 feet away before the lock activated. Reactivation was about the same. If I approach, it was frequently open before I got back to it. (Yes, I know it works because I could see the screen :-)
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  #3  
Old 05-12-2009, 04:41 PM
OSUKid7
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Default blueproximity

I have used the blueproximity package on my Ubuntu laptop for this previously. It works decently, but like stlbud said, I also had the problem of figuring out the right range to set it to lock/unlock. It does have a nice configuration tool to set how long the signal strength had to be past a certain level in order for it to lock/unlock. In the end, I prefered just using my password or fingerprint on my ThinkPad for better security, but for home users these types of programs seem to work well enough.

Info about blueproximity:
Quote:
Description: locks/unlocks your desktop tracking a bluetooth device
blueproximity helps you adding a little more security to your desktop. It does
so by detecting one of your bluetooth devices, most likely your mobile phone,
and keeping track of its distance. If you move away from your computer and the
distance is above a certain level (no measurement in meters is possible) for a
given time, it automatically locks your desktop (or starts any other shell
command you want).

Once away, if you return nearer than a given level for a set time your computer
unlocks magically without any interaction (or starts any other shell command
you want).
Homepage: http://blueproximity.sourceforge.net/
 
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Old 05-12-2009, 05:59 PM
jdmichal
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I think I'll try this on my home computer, since I don't care if it's unlocked as long as I'm home. For work... I'm in a trailer, and I'm sure the bluetooth signal could get through the wall. Unlocking when I'm not even inside the building... sounds like bad news to me.
 
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