On dare from government, researchers successfully hack flying drone

[MindMover]

A team of researchers at the University of Texas commandeered an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) by tricking and overriding the craft’s GPS, proving for the first time how easy a high-tech hijacking can be, and raising questions about the safety of a program the U.S. military has become increasing reliant on to patrol the Middle East.

What’s more, the team hacked the drone using equipment that, all told, cost only about $1,000.

In June, officials from the Department of Homeland Security invited Todd Humphreys, an assistant professor from Texas’ Cockrell School of Engineering, and a team of researchers out to the New Mexico desert for the challenge. Using a small, sophisticated civilian drone from the university, the team managed to repeatedly override the UAV’s navigational signals, allowing them to dramatically alter the craft’s preset flight path.

To hack the UAV, Humphrey’s and his team used a technique known as, “spoofing,” in which new signals are broadcast that reroute the vehicle while simultaneously tricking it into thinking it hasn’t strayed off course. The resulting effect is similar to an action-movie robber looping surveillance camera footage to mask his movements.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/07/01/on-dare-from-government-researchers-successfully-hack-flying-drone/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

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Anyone for multiple firewalls and security systems only the operator knows..

[TheWraith]

1. Spoofing a GPS receiver is not the same as hacking a drone.

It would simply allow you to make the aircraft go off course, not to give you any real control over where it went, and no control whatsoever over the rest of its systems. Moreover, military-grade GPS signals are encrypted, making them effectively impossible to spoof.

[Plucketeer]

3. How does that "kool-ade" taste? nt

[TheWraith]

4. Glad to see you admit to having no actual argument to rebut with, so you resort to insults. nt

[Plucketeer]

5. Hmmm...

I guess my "message" went right over your head. Sorry 'bout that. Lemmee see if I can simplify it ...... I was trying to intimate that it's a joke to think that military hardware is impregnable/incorruptable. Of course, if you buy into what propaganda the Pentagon (and the thieving contractors that run it) spews, I could see where you'd believe that there couldn't be a snookering of these super-smart machines. Built by the same sorta men that made Ford Pintos, the DeHavilland Comet, Cargo doors on 747s, the super-critical lenses that rendered the space telescope myopic.

[TheWraith]

7. News for you: The Pentagon didn't build the Ford Pinto or the Hubble Space Telescope.

And given the fact that I've clearly forgotten more about technology than you care to learn, you might want to do a little research into the concepts of on the fly encryption, secure key encryption, and the inner workings of the NAVSTAR global positioning system.

This "test" is the equivalent of switching around street signs then claiming that you remotely took control of the brain of a driver who followed them. It's little more than a publicity stunt, and GPS spoofing is something that's very well known in the tech field. It's also something which is fundamentally not very useful, since it requires incredibly precise knowledge of where the target is, painfully slow adjustments to the signal, and even then it's useless against military encrypted GPS transmissions. That's why there is no known examples of the malicious use of GPS spoofing. It's possible but so difficult as to be fairly pointless.

[boppers]

11. "It's possible but so difficult as to be fairly pointless."

Unless, of course, the whole point is to introduce chaos into the system, rather than take over the system. Much like switching around street signs, you have rendered the driver ineffective, or less effective.

Since you seem to know a bit about security, it might shock you to learn that military drones, in theater in Iraq and Afghanistan, were broadcasting video streams. Unencrypted. Since you also seem to know a bit about our military technology, though, that might not surprise you in the slightest.

Oh, and if you have a video stream, you have position. Heck, if you have radio transmission, you have triangulation, encrypted or not... so finding the position isn't the hard part. *Trusting* the GPS recieved data is the issue, and an incredibly large number of systems are using old, already broken, systems (the Block III satellites should by going up next year or so, but large number of drones are still using various P(Y) systems, and even fewer are using W-code, or M-code).

Also, for clarity's sake, it should be noted (repeatedly) that the drone hacked was using generic, civilian, GPS.

[Plucketeer]

12. You're correct

Pentagon had nada to do with a Pinto or Hubble. But last thing I checked - the folks building drones and the ones that built 747s - or the F22 that plays prankish jokes on it's pilots when it takes a notion - those folks ALL put on their slacks one leg at a time. This - your eminence - is to say that these contrivances were all conceived and constructed by mere mortals (you excepted, of course).

Save your lectures henceforth. I've had all the "learnin'" I can absorb for one day. I realize and openly acknowlege when I'm intellecktually hacked. As you've assured us, US military drones are absolutely infallible!

[nadinbrzezinski]

8. Actually it is, since gps is computer controlled

You determine waypoints (route) using a computer program.

This reminds me of how non hackable computer voting machines are, which for the record, are very hackable.

(Willing to bet on an agreement on what systems)

[boppers]

9. They aren't spoofing the GPS reciever. They're spoofing the GPS satellite signals.

Since most drones (such as this one) do not use encrypted GPS, they're just altering course, so as far as the drone is concerned, GPS is telling the drone that it's in *exactly* the right place.

As far as "military-grade GPS signals are encrypted, making them effectively impossible to spoof", that's a bit of giggle-worthy propaganda. M-code is just another PRN, and uses the *same technique* as the above hack to over-ride the satellite data.

[Plucketeer]

2. Just a matter of time

before we see evidence of this perpetrated by someone who's NOT been invited to do so.

[EFerrari]

6. Of course and the reaction from TPTB will be, damn, our profits are under threat. n/t

[woo me with science]

10. We will need more and better drones

to counter the threat.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

13. Spoofing and clocking have been doable for years

The real issue will be police or other official UAVs that require GPS for operation but are not allowed to use the military encrypted signals and other anti spoofing tools.

[bemildred]

14. You could fly it into a mountain that way, eh? nt

[loose wheel]

15. It's unnecessary to hijack a drone

This is just one way of taking a drone out of commission.

Another is just to jam it's signals from base. They operate on a known frequency and a jammer is a cheap piece of equipment to build. Depending on their programming a drone that loses signal input from it's base may return to base or just crash.

Police Departments don't need these gadgets. Boots on the ground is what prevents crime. All the gadgets, red light cameras, speed cameras, and now these drones they want to use.......they turn law enforcement into revenue enhancement.

[ManiacJoe]

16. Didn't Iran do this to one of our military drones?