69.2 (L2) Ensure 'Bluetooth Support Service (bthserv)' is set to 'Disabled'

Information

The Bluetooth service supports discovery and association of remote Bluetooth devices.

The recommended state for this setting is: Disabled

Bluetooth technology has inherent security risks - especially prior to the v2.1 standard. Wireless Bluetooth traffic is not well encrypted (if at all), so in a high-security environment, it should not be permitted, in spite of the added inconvenience of not being able to use Bluetooth devices.

Solution

Remediation of this service is currently not possible through Settings Catalog or a custom profile OMA-URI. Instead, it can be scripted and deployed through the Intune Scripts or Remediations blade or by other means.

To establish the recommended configuration via PowerShell, run the following cmdlet:

Set-Service -Name bthserv -StartupType Disabled

Impact:

Already installed Bluetooth devices may fail to operate properly and new devices may be prevented from being discovered or associated. If Bluetooth devices were installed, then some Windows components, such as Devices and Printers, may fail to operate correctly - including hanging/freezing when opened. The solution, besides re-enabling this service, is to disable or delete the offending Bluetooth device(s) in Device Manager, or disable the device altogether via the system BIOS (if it is an on-board Bluetooth device).

See Also

https://workbench.cisecurity.org/benchmarks/16853

Item Details

Category: CONFIGURATION MANAGEMENT

References: 800-53|CM-6, 800-53|CM-7, CSCv7|9.2

Plugin: Windows

Control ID: b4c42652ac90e71f379b6a82beca8b7fe284ce43a5ab434ca644c5bd443d977a