this post was submitted on 24 Oct 2023
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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It's funny, everyone keeps asking the same things so I have to keep typing the same information in this thread. 😅
It came up as a Windows notification center popup in the bottom right corner of the screen saying it was trying to connect or something like that, but when I clicked on it, it came up with a different window offering me yes or no, I clicked no, then it came up in the bottom right corner again starting the loop over, I clicked no several times before opening the connected devices app and disabling Bluetooth completely. This all happened in about 60 seconds as I saw it when grabbing my keys to leave for work at 5am, no one else was awake and I wasn't interacting with ANY devices or my computer at all beforehand.
Sorry 😅 I probably could have taken a closer look at other comments, but in any case this paints a nice picture for me, thank you :)
Edit: Actually I decided to boot into Windows and test this a little myself, and turns out when bluetooth is on it is discoverable (Windows is a peripheral, the BlueZ device is a central wanting to connect). When i connected from my phone to my computer, It seemed more accurate to what you described too. If you dont use bluetooth disable it, or make your device not discoverable. 😅
It does help to know it was a notification and to know what was in it. I was able to find an image which looked similar and led me to find a Windows feature called Swift Pair. It lets you connect to a bluetooth device via notification, rather than in the settings. You can try disabling Swift Pair if it is enabled.
Here is my conclusion:
As others said, BlueZ is essentially the program that allows bluetooth to run on Linux. The name alone doesn't tell you if the person behind has malicious intent.
It's possible that somebody was making a swift pair compatible device using Linux. Maybe they thought 5AM was early enough that the swift pair notification would only show up on their computer since they wouldn't be able to prevent other people from seeing it otherwise 🤷
It could also just be some device rebroadcasting itself on a clock. I'm not sure why or what you would do with this other than to annoy people?
If you especially don't trust your neighbors and want to imagine a worst case scenario, it could be spoofing something like a bluetooth keyboard, rebroadcasting until someone connects, and runs a series of shortcuts / commands to infect your computer to replicate the virus further. ((Issue is, it doesn't make sense they'd develop on Linux with BlueZ even though the virus could only propagate on Windows. Kinda fun to think about regardless though))
I hope that answers your question :)
I'll still never probably fully know what happened, but that was a great reply and I appreciate all your help. Luckily my direct neighbors on both sides are old AF and I trust them to not be doing anything like this because they wouldn't even know what any of it means, but the sketchy businesses behind us that include a liquor store, vape shop and sex shop among others I can't say I trust as much. I'm glad Windows was kind enough to ask instead of just connecting. 😂