Insurgents Hack U.S. Drones

[theprez98]

Well, sort of.

They just intercepted the unencrypted video downlink.

Incredibly:

The potential drone vulnerability lies in an unencrypted downlink between the unmanned craft and ground control. The U.S. government has known about the flaw since the U.S. campaign in Bosnia in the 1990s, current and former officials said. But the Pentagon assumed local adversaries wouldn't know how to exploit it, the officials said.

Wow, just wow. Of course, no one would be able to figure out how to "exploit" an unencrypted downlink.

Some of its communications technology is proprietary, so widely used encryption systems aren't readily compatible, said people familiar with the matter.

Even better, because we all know how well proprietary and security go hand in hand.

Full article here.

[AgentDarkApple]

Re: Insurgents Hack U.S. Drones

I saw that this morning. I thought about posting it here, but I was not sure if people would find it interesting - glad to see that someone besides myself thought so. As for "the Pentagon assumed..." well, that's a good bit of the problem in this case I would love to know whom the genius was who thought it was ok to leave something like this unencrypted. Although there may not have been any real harm done in this case (other than tipping the insurgents off to some of our intel on them), who's to say that something like the navigational system on a UAV will not eventually be hacked. This is just another example of how the US military in general tends to underestimate the intellect and skills of the opposition.

[streaker69]

Re: Insurgents Hack U.S. Drones

I was just reading an article the other day that kind of fits into this. It was about how the Military isn't really using the MilSpec anymore for purchasing electronics, more and more stuff is generally off the shelf and modified for military purposes. I'm wondering if this is part of the problem here.

I'll see if I can dig up the reference.

[theprez98]

Re: Insurgents Hack U.S. Drones

I think the reasoning of "they're too dumb to figure it out" comes right behind security by obscurity.

"Let's hope they don't find it, but even if they do, they're too dumb to figure it out."

Lt Gen Mcinerney (USAF, Ret) just tried to claim on a cable news channel that there was little or no impact from this, and his comments seemed to suggest (at least to me) that he really didn't understand how the system works.

[Melesse]

Re: Insurgents Hack U.S. Drones

who's to say that something like the navigational system on a UAV will not eventually be hacked.

Read it this morning as well.

And if the video downlink from the drone isn't encrypted...did they at least encrypt the control signals? That would be a nasty surprise. Is it frequency agile at all? Resistant to jamming? If they can watch the video and possibly intercept guidance info, determine where the drone is heading, and then drive a pick up truck to a hilltop in the way with a jammer on back. Hell, not even a jammer, overpower the signal link with a dummy one and use it to bring it down. Salvage yourself some Hellfire missiles, etc etc.

I'll admit, I don't know how hard it would be to build an effective jammer for this purpose, as I don't know the type of hardware or specs used on the drone, but I have no doubt the opposition is already thinking along these lines.

Melesse

[Thorn]

Re: Insurgents Hack U.S. Drones

Incredibly: " ... But the Pentagon assumed local adversaries wouldn't know how to exploit it, the officials said. "

Wow, just wow. Of course, no one would be able to figure out how to "exploit" an unencrypted downlink.

... Lt Gen Mcinerney (USAF, Ret) just tried to claim on a cable news channel that there was little or no impact from this ...

Gee, how about "Hey General, if I know where you're looking, I also know where you aren't looking?" I'd say that not only is that an exploit, it's also a strategic advantage.

[renderman]

Re: Insurgents Hack U.S. Drones

There was talk of this a few years ago by satellite TV hackers who discovered video streams on commercial satellites. This has to be at least 5 years ago.

The explanation at the time was that since so many drones were in use, the military has exhausted all it's capacity on it's own satellites to get video feeds back to generals in the states and had to bump lower value general surveillance feeds over to commercial satellites which were unencrypted and easier to intercept.

The control signals were on different frequencies and the ability to view the video was not of much strategic value to an enemy. That said, it appears that these systems are able to be intercepted locally

My recent trip to Poland was very enlightening on the amount of data available on and the possibilities of satellite sniffing. I think as military leverages consumer infrastructure more and more, these sort of 'well duh' moments will be more frequent. Hopefully without any getting killed.

[g3k_]

Re: Insurgents Hack U.S. Drones

According to Wired's Danger Room, Warplanes are vulnerable to this as well:http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2009...-us-warplanes/

[Thorn]

Re: Insurgents Hack U.S. Drones

Interestingly, SkyGrabber's site is down. Either they're getting so much traffic from these stories that they are essentially DoS'd, or someone has taken them out. Occam's Razor would indicate it's just too much traffic, although conspiracy theorists will no doubt assume the latter.

[streaker69]

Re: Insurgents Hack U.S. Drones

Interestingly, SkyGrabber's site is down. Either they're getting so much traffic from these stories that they are essentially DoS'd, or someone has taken them out. Occam's Razor would indicate it's just too much traffic, although conspiracy theorists will no doubt assume the latter.

Oddly enough, a YouTube video was recently posted showing Skygrabber's headquarters from approximately 8000' and then for no apparent reason, the building blew up.

Reports are sketchy, but it appears to have been a spontaneous explosion.

[AgentDarkApple]

Re: Insurgents Hack U.S. Drones

Melesse, to my knowledge UAVs, or at least the newer and more advanced ones, are not susceptible to any known jamming techniques at this point. In fact, some of them are equipped with their own jamming signals that will not interfere with the UAV's operation but can jam enemy electronics on the ground. I am not sure what protection is in place for the nav system, which is why I suspect that it too will be hacked in the near future. I just know things could get icky fast if they are able to hack the armed UAVs

[renderman]

Re: Insurgents Hack U.S. Drones

Anyone know someone who we can contact about getting one at Defcon to hack on? We'll share the results, I swear!

[Thorn]

Re: Insurgents Hack U.S. Drones

Anyone know someone who we can contact about getting one at Defcon to hack on? We'll share the results, I swear!

OK, but just don't take out the Riv until we've all left.

BTW, anyone see NCIS - Los Angeles a couple of weeks ago? They hacked a Predator using a laptop and a USB joystick/throttle controller. I thought it was BS then, now I'm not so sure...

[AgentDarkApple]

Re: Insurgents Hack U.S. Drones

Anyone know someone who we can contact about getting one at Defcon to hack on? We'll share the results, I swear!

As much as we would all love that, I think it would be a BIG no no :)

[xor]

Re: Insurgents Hack U.S. Drones

Actually this could also be dis-information. Trying to get the cave men to use more electronics, so that our missiles can lock in and ride the signal to their destruction.

xor