Preventing random connections to nrf52832 custom device

[Aashyk]

Hello!

I am working on a medical device project utilizing nrf52832 microcontroller. We use a mobile app to control and interact with the device through BLE since the device only has 1 button and 2 LEDs for I/Os. My question is related to security aspect of the BLE connection; is there a way to prevent random bluetooth devices from connecting to nrf52832 controller using existing BLE features/libraries while advertising? Or would this have to be implemented in the application layer?

[jon]

I also work for a medical device company, so have the same requirement. This can actually be easily achieved by using white lists. Our device has two states for advertising, direct advertising (only advertising to devices on the whitelist) and normal advertising where any device can bond and be added to the white list. We leave the default state on power up as direct advertising and require users to manually enter normal advertising mode to enable devices to be added to the white list. Look into examples around direct advertising. 

[Aashyk]

Hi Jon!

Thanks for responding to my question! I have reviewed the direct advertising and whitelisting feature and it seems like that's what we might need for this requirement! I was wondering if you would be able to provide a link to a specific example for this implementation.

Thanks!

[jon]

No, sorry. It’s been a while since I’ve implemented this and cannot remember any example projects for this. Feel free to reach out to my public email with any questions. 

[Aashyk]

No worries! Thank you so much!