Insurgents hack US drones - $26.00 program does it.

Bokeh

Insurgents Hack U.S. Drones - WSJ.com

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Claymoore

I heard that on the news this morning. They said the control software was written back before encryption was common. Looks like it's time for an upgrade.

veritas_libertas

Claymoore wrote: »

They said the control software was written back before encryption was common. Looks like it's time for an upgrade.

There is something really pathetic about that...

eMeS

Funny, as I was reading this story, I was listening to the Roger Waters song, "The Bravery of Being Out of Range".

Just love those laser guided bombs
They're really great for righting wrongs
You hit the target, win the game
From bars 3,000 miles away
3,000 miles away

MS

RobertKaucher

veritas_libertas wrote: »

There is something really pathetic about that...

I agree. I cannot believe that nobody considered this. I imagine it will come out that several people mentioned that this could occur to their superiors but were told to remain quite due to the cost/embarrassment factors.

Bokeh

When I was in the military, we encrypted everything except normal base phones and the MARS station. Someone screwed the pooch on this big time.

Turgon

It would be funny if it wasn't for the millions of dollars of public money spent on red tape and security consultant fees on everything and anything connected with the military complex.

msteinhilber

RobertKaucher wrote: »

I agree. I cannot believe that nobody considered this. I imagine it will come out that several people mentioned that this could occur to their superiors but were told to remain quite due to the cost/embarrassment factors.

This is my thought. Just takes a couple politicians to royally screw up something all in the name of keeping the budget in line to get a project approved. I'd bet promises were made that they would revisit it and implement it later but later never comes.

tiersten

msteinhilber wrote: »

This is my thought. Just takes a couple politicians to royally screw up something all in the name of keeping the budget in line to get a project approved. I'd bet promises were made that they would revisit it and implement it later but later never comes.

Maybe one of them saw those X10 wireless camera adverts and went AHAH!

tiersten

From what I can tell, this SkyGrabber software is used to decode satellite video transmissions. I guess the drone uses a satellite uplink for its video or control systems and the video feed itself isn't encrypted. If you point a satellite receiver with a LNB which can receive the required frequency at the correct orientation for the military satellite that is being used then I assume you can view the video...

Whilst they are technically using a piece of software to view the drone feeds, it isn't quite as simple as they make out in the article. I expect some simplification of technical details anyway since it is the WSJ and aimed at general readers. For the general population however, they'll assume that with this magic piece of software (for a low low price of only $25.95! BUY NOW!) will allow them to "hack" the drone.

Kaminsky

I hope the flight/fire control software IS encrypted.

tiersten

Kaminsky wrote: »

I hope the flight/fire control software IS encrypted.

Triple ROT13 and reversed.

chrisone

People will say anything to print a story. Dont believe the hype so easy, all you guys are better than that.

veritas_libertas

chrisone wrote: »

People will say anything to print a story. Dont believe the hype so easy, all you guys are better than that.

If somehow politicians are involved in this, than it is more than easily believable...

Kaminsky

chrisone wrote: »

People will say anything to print a story. Dont believe the hype so easy, all you guys are better than that.

I did think about that, then presumed the Wall Steet Journal would have triple checked their sources on a story like this just in case it was wrong and the military would just laugh at them very, very publicly. Then I thought, why would the downfeed from a drone not be encrypted and all I could think about was QOS on encryted live images so I thought they might have sent the video data as is in case of delay. The flight/fight control uplink would be encrypted I would hope.

tiersten

Kaminsky wrote: »

Then I thought, why would the downfeed from a drone not be encrypted and all I could think about was QOS on encryted live images so I thought they might have sent the video data as is in case of delay. The flight/fight control uplink would be encrypted I would hope.

The Predator was introduced over 15 years ago which means it had been in development for many years prior to that. It may have just been deemed to be not viable or cost effective to add real time digitising and encryption hardware to the drone.

20 years ago, the state of the art in commercial satellite video encryption was still mostly analogue based. It would swap lines or parts of lines around so you'd get a garbled picture.

mikedisd2

... according to a person familiar with reports on the matter.

A person familiar with reports? That's all the authority I need on the subject.

EmpoweredBizTech

Hey it could have been worse it could have been a free piece of software.

tiersten

EmpoweredBizTech wrote: »

Hey it could have been worse it could have been a free piece of software.

Yeah... I can see the media FUD for that now. Open source software allows insurgents to hack military UAV!

BroadcastStorm

Is that a drone in the US air space it's attacking us lol...

TheShadow

chrisone wrote: »

People will say anything to print a story. Dont believe the hype so easy, all you guys are better than that.

So you really don't believe the rumors that it was a modified Direct TV channel program written in Mbasic 6??

eMeS

Gizmodo has a story on this that does a better job of explaining some of the details:

Insurgents' $26 Drone Video Hack Works On Almost Every Military Plane - Drone hack - Gizmodo

MS

Bokeh

Dang you beat me to the updated post, lol. Good article.

RobertKaucher

I find it amusing nobody has noticed it was a $26.00 piece of software... 2600. LOL

eMeS

RobertKaucher wrote: »

I find it amusing nobody has noticed it was a $26.00 piece of software... 2600. LOL

Good catch!

MS

RobertKaucher

When I saw the headline I was initially skeptical that it was real because that was a bit convenient.

And I want to point out that while this may not seem like a big deal, this is not two guys in a basement in Basrah like the article stated. Copies of these feeds were found on laptops of Iranians involved in intell gathering. So they are not uneducated goathearders who just happened to get lucky by swapping RPGs for a sat dish.

While this may not be able to help insurgents in the hills of Afghanistan in a really practical way rightnow it certainly gives information to a government we do not want to become familiar with our military methods.

Iranian forces take over Iraq oil well - Yahoo! News

chrisone

TheShadow wrote: »

So you really don't believe the rumors that it was a modified Direct TV channel program written in Mbasic 6??

no, i don't believe it until its been proven. I dont think anyone is going to try to hack a drone to prove such theories, so this is pretty dead in the water to me.

veritas_libertas

chrisone wrote: »

I dont think anyone is going to try to hack a drone to prove such theories...

I am going say that will probably regret saying that. Iraq isn't the only place those things are located. California, and Chicago for one thing. Some hacker out there will probably try.

chrisone

i wouldnt want to be him lol

I also do want to say all things are possible, but im just a guy who doesnt fall fast for stories with third party sources. I am a see it to believe it guy, sucky thing is that once i see it, i want to learn how it was accomplished! lol

RobertKaucher

US military says drone security flaw fixed - WashingtonTV ???????? ???????

Clearly fixing the issue involved billions of dollars and too much time... Seeing as it was accomplished in like two days. Of course this could have been in the works for a long time.

Ahriakin

What bothered me almost more are the officials that claim it isn't a serious issue....if the Intel was not critical why are we trying to use it in the first place?....Empires fall when CYA overrides national security.
Idiots. Plain, simple, inexcusable.