Authentication failure

[giglesias]

I am modifying the ble_central\ble_app_hrs_c example to connect to a peripheral with an "Authentication Characteristic" that is used to initiate the peripheral-specific authentication protocol required for any display to communicate with the transmitter. The “Authentication Characteristic” is a non-encrypted BLE Characteristic.

I have enabled trace debugging in the code and the connection closes due to [DM]: >> BLE_GAP_EVT_AUTH_STATUS, status 00000083

The trace for a connection is below. Any insight or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Peer Address:0x3b, 0x29, 0x8e, 0x3e, 0xc9, 0xcbRSSI -50db [APPL]: ble_evt_dispatch received 0x00 [DM]: Request to allocation connection instance [DM]:[00]: Connection Instance Allocated. [DM]: Searching for device 0x3B 0x29 0x8E 0x3E 0xC9 0xCB. [DM]:[DI 0x00]: Device type 0xFF. [DM]: Device Addr 0xFF 0xFF 0xFF 0xFF 0xFF 0xFF. [DM]:[DI 0x01]: Device type 0xFF. [DM]: Device Addr 0xFF 0xFF 0xFF 0xFF 0xFF 0xFF. [DM]:[DI 0x02]: Device type 0xFF. [DM]: Device Addr 0xFF 0xFF 0xFF 0xFF 0xFF 0xFF. [DM]:[DI 0x03]: Device type 0xFF. [DM]: Device Addr 0xFF 0xFF 0xFF 0xFF 0xFF 0xFF. [DM]:[DI 0x04]: Device type 0xFF. [DM]: Device Addr 0xFF 0xFF 0xFF 0xFF 0xFF 0xFF. [DM]:[DI 0x05]: Device type 0xFF. [DM]: Device Addr 0xFF 0xFF 0xFF 0xFF 0xFF 0xFF. [DM]:[DI 0x06]: Device type 0xFF. [DM]: Device Addr 0xFF 0xFF 0xFF 0xFF 0xFF 0xFF. [DM]: Notifying application of event 0x11 [APPL]: >> DM_EVT_CONNECTION [APPL]:[3B 29 8E 3E C9 CB]: 00 Connection Established [DM]: >> dm_security_setup_req [DM]:[DI 0x00]: Device type 0xFF. [DM]: Device Addr 0xFF 0xFF 0xFF 0xFF 0xFF [DM]: >> BLE_GAP_EVT_AUTH_STATUS, status 00000083 [DM]: Notifying application of event 0x14 [APPL]: >> DM_EVT_SECURITY_SETUP_COMPLETE [APPL]: << DM_EVT_SECURITY_SETUP_COMPLETE [DM]: Disconnect Reason 0x0013 [DM]: Initializing Peer Instance 0x00000000. [DM]: Notifying application of event 0x12 [APPL]: >> DM_EVT_DISCONNECTION [DM]: >> dm_whitelist_create [DM]: Created whitelist, number of IRK = 0x00, number of a [APPL]: febc

[Hung Bui]

Hi Giglesias,

Could you tell a little bit more on the "peripheral-specific authentication protocol" ? [DM]: >> BLE_GAP_EVT_AUTH_STATUS with status 0x83 telling that :

BLE_GAP_SEC_STATUS_AUTH_REQ 0x83 /**< Authentication requirements not met. */

It seems like it's sent from the application from one side. Do you have any call like sec_params_reply(conn_handle, BLE_GAP_SEC_STATUS_AUTH_REQ, ...) in your code ?

It's not clear if you triggered the normal Bluetooth pairing or not. If you can provide a sniffer trace it's easier to determine what's wrong.

[giglesias]

Hi Hung Thanks for the response. Using the Nordic Sniffer all I can see are the advertising packets. I can connect and discover the known GAT services of the peripheral with the nRF Master Control Panel Android app. But when I sniff the communication all I see are advertising packets.

The peripheral I am trying to connect to is a Nordic rnf51 series device, but someone else wrote the code and I do not have access tit. There is also and iOS app that communicates with the peripheral but that source is closed to me as well.

If I simulate the peripheral on a nRf51 it works great.

If I could get the Nordic sniffer to capture more than just advertisement packets I could probably figure this out.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[Hung Bui]

Hi Giglesias,

I'm sorry that you experiencing issue with the sniffer. It's a known issue and we are trying to fix it. There is a workaround is to unplug and plug the sniffer dongle and test (usually take a few times before you can track the connection).