In Mobland, Tom Hardy uses two phones, the smart phone for everyday legal personal use but he has a dumb phone for the serious business stuff. He uses wired headphones when talking on the dumb phone, ...
Yes, a small one, and it's mostly about not having Bluetooth in the picture at all.
What wired avoids:
- No radio link to attack. In 2025 ERNW found flaws in Airoha Bluetooth chips (CVE-2025-20700, -20701, -20702) used in earbuds from several big brands. Someone within Bluetooth range could connect without pairing, listen through the mic, and even pull the phone's link key to pose as the headset and answer or place calls. Firmware fixes depend on each brand shipping an update.
- Nothing broadcasting. Bluetooth headsets and phones advertise identifiers that can be used to spot or follow a device nearby. With wired audio you can leave Bluetooth off on that phone entirely.
What it doesn't fix: the call itself still rides the carrier network, which isn't end-to-end encrypted, can be lawfully intercepted, and on 2G can be picked up by a fake cell tower. A dumb phone also reports its location to the network constantly. So the cable is good hygiene, but most of the real exposure in that setup is on the network side.
Sources:
https://www.airoha.com/product-security-bulletin/2025
https://insinuator.net/2025/12/bluetooth-headphone-jacking-full-disclosure-of-airoha-race-vulnerabilities/
What wired avoids:
- No radio link to attack. In 2025 ERNW found flaws in Airoha Bluetooth chips (CVE-2025-20700, -20701, -20702) used in earbuds from several big brands. Someone within Bluetooth range could connect without pairing, listen through the mic, and even pull the phone's link key to pose as the headset and answer or place calls. Firmware fixes depend on each brand shipping an update.
- Nothing broadcasting. Bluetooth headsets and phones advertise identifiers that can be used to spot or follow a device nearby. With wired audio you can leave Bluetooth off on that phone entirely.
What it doesn't fix: the call itself still rides the carrier network, which isn't end-to-end encrypted, can be lawfully intercepted, and on 2G can be picked up by a fake cell tower. A dumb phone also reports its location to the network constantly. So the cable is good hygiene, but most of the real exposure in that setup is on the network side.
Sources:
https://www.airoha.com/product-security-bulletin/2025
https://insinuator.net/2025/12/bluetooth-headphone-jacking-full-disclosure-of-airoha-race-vulnerabilities/
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