peer_manager_handler: Connection security failed: error: 1

[Yury Morgunov]

Hi all,

My device is working as a HID device. it's working on android and iPad but not work on macOS. It's can't solve the security procedure and returning error:
<info> peer_manager_handler: Connection security failed: role: Peripheral, conn_handle: 0x0, procedure: Bonding, error: 1

I was trying to connect to macOS 10.13.6 High Sierra using ble_app_hids_keyboard example. But I got the same error.

My device using NRF52810 with s112 and SDK 15.3.0. Ble_app_hids_keyboard project I had run on pca10040 board with s112 and SDK 15.3.0. The only thing which I changed in ble_app_hids_keyboard example is sdk_config.h

#define NRF_LOG_BACKEND_RTT_ENABLED 1

#define NRF_LOG_DEFAULT_LEVEL 4

Can you help me?
Many thanks in advance.

[Einar Thorsrud]

Hi,

I do not have a High Sierra device at hand, but I tested using macOS Catalina and the ble_app_hids_keyboard example from SDK 15.3. Using that I am not able to reproduce the issue, and pairing succeeds as expected. Are you able to reproduce this with Catalina?

[Yury Morgunov]

tested on old macbook air. not connected. Macbook writes it was not possible to create a pair, nothing happens on the device side.

[Einar Thorsrud]

Hi,

I have tested several Mac's and MacOS versions now, and I am not able to reproduce this. This is basically an unmodified SDK example, just with the additional logging you have added. Do you still get problems using this hex (ble_app_hids_keyboard_pca10040_s132_merged.hex - include both app and SoftDevice)?

It is a bit difficult to read your RTT logs and some things seem missing, which may be because you probably have NRF_FPRINTF_FLAG_AUTOMATIC_CR_ON_LF_ENABLED set to 1 in the sdk_config.h. Please set this to 0.

The only problem I am able to reproduce is a few expected problems. When deleting the bonding information on the Mac but not on the nRF, I get this:

<info> peer_manager_handler: Connection security failed: role: Peripheral, conn_handle: 0x0, procedure: Bonding, error: 133

And when deleting the donging information on the nRF only, I get this:

<info> peer_manager_handler: Connection security failed: role: Peripheral, conn_handle: 0x0, procedure: Encryption, error: 4102

[Yury Morgunov]

I will describe each step that I take:
1) I connect the PCA10040 1.2.4 board to the PC
2) I launch j-flash Lite V6.60 and select nRF52832_xxAA
3) Erase chip
4) Download to Board - s132_nrf52_6.1.1_softdevice.hex
5) Upload to Board - ble_app_hids_keyboard_pca10040_s132_merged.hex (what you sent me)
6) LED1 started flashing
7) I go to the iMAC version of Catalina I do not see in the list of bluetooth devices.
8) When I started looking for the device on the android, LED1 stopped flashing. Restarted the PCA10040.
9) I saw Nordic_Keyboard on the android, after half a minute I went to iMAC. The device is not visible, but LED1 is still blinking. Androyd still sees Nordic_Keyboard.
10) Restarted the device and immediately started searching on the iMAC. The Nordic_Keyboard device has appeared. But the connection does not occur.
11) The LED has stopped flashing. I restarted the PCA10040. I connected with android without problems.

First I wrote what I was doing, then I do it.

Then I set:

#define PM_LOG_LEVEL 4

#define NRF_FPRINTF_FLAG_AUTOMATIC_CR_ON_LF_ENABLED  0

I completed steps 1 through 4

1) make clean
2) make -j 2 (Of course, there were no errors)
3) I load s132_nrf52_6.1.1_softdevice.hex into the board
4) Download the firmware to the board
5) LED1 started flashing
6) I connect via RTT Viewer V6.60c, I see the logs.
7) Connect to iMAC High Sierra (Did not give a computer with a Catalina) (device is not visible, restart).
Logs after restart:

00> <info> app: HID Keyboard example started.
00> <info> app: Erase bonds!
00> <debug> peer_manager_handler: Event PM_EVT_PEERS_DELETE_SUCCEEDED
00> <info> peer_manager_handler: All peers deleted.
00> <info> app: m_whitelist_peer_cnt 1, MAX_PEERS_WLIST 8
00> <debug> app: pm_whitelist_get returns 0 addr in whitelist and 0 irk whitelist
00> <info> app: Fast advertising.
00> <info> app: Connected
00> <debug> nrf_ble_gatt: Peer on connection 0x0 requested an ATT MTU of 104 bytes.
00> <debug> nrf_ble_gatt: Updating ATT MTU to 23 bytes (desired: 23) on connection 0x0.
00> <debug> peer_manager_handler: Event PM_EVT_CONN_SEC_START
00> <debug> peer_manager_handler: Connection security procedure started: role: Peripheral, conn_handle: 0, procedure: Bonding
00> <debug> peer_manager_handler: Event PM_EVT_CONN_SEC_PARAMS_REQ
00> <debug> peer_manager_handler: Security parameter request
00> <debug> peer_manager_handler: Event PM_EVT_CONN_SEC_FAILED
00> <info> peer_manager_handler: Connection security failed: role: Peripheral, conn_handle: 0x0, procedure: Bonding, error: 1

[Einar Thorsrud]

Hi,

This is odd. I am still a bit unsure about how to read the log since it seems corrupted. Can you make sure to test with NRF_FPRINTF_FLAG_AUTOMATIC_CR_ON_LF_ENABLED set to 0, and upload the log again? Also, please attach a sniffer trace from the same test, so that we can see what is happening on air. This is particularly useful here since I find it hard to explain based on the logs and I am unable to reproduce the issue on my side.

[Yury Morgunov]

Yes, I set the flag NRF_FPRINTF_FLAG_AUTOMATIC_CR_ON_LF_ENABLED to 0.
As for nRF Sniffer - I will write packets to Wireshark tomorrow or after tomorrow and forward them to you

[Yury Morgunov]

I'm sorry for the pause.
I scanned BLE packets in Wireshark.
I downloaded an example of a HID keyboard with logs enabled on the PCA10040 board.
Turned on Wireshark and started trying to connect.
In one file, I connected with an error.
In another file, I could not connect. I rebooted macOS and started connecting, but MacOS was constantly reconnecting to the device.

1777.Connected with error.pcapng

5315.several automatic reconnections.pcapng

P.S. I forgot to give the device MAC address - btle.advertising_address == ce:53:10:cd:68:c7

MAC address macOS device - 20:c9:d0:8d:0f:14 (High Sierra)

[Einar Thorsrud]

Hi,

From the sniffer trace (5315.several automatic reconnections.pcapng) it looks like there is a problem with the packet reception. I don't know if it is just a problem with the sniffer, or also the communication between the DK (keyboard) and Mac, but you can see that almost all of the CONNECT_REQ packets has CRC errors. Interestingly there are no problems in the advertisement packets from the keyboard. Are you ablet o make a sniffer trace without this problem? Does this Mac function with other BLE devices? Or are you testing in a very noisy environment?

For your reference, I have uploaded a sniffer trace (ble_app_hids_keyboard_pca10040_s132_merged_catalina.btt) where I tested the ble_app_hids_keyboard_pca10040_s132_merged.hex attached to this case. I am still not able to see any problems.