Hijacking Airplanes With an Android Phone 131
An anonymous reader writes "Until today, hacking and hijacking planes by pressing a few buttons on an Android mobile app has been the stuff of over-the-top blockbuster movies. However, the talk that security researcher and commercial airplane pilot Hugo Teso delivered today at the Hack in the Box conference in Amsterdam has brought it into the realm of reality and has given us one more thing to worry about and fear (presentation slides PDF). One of the two technologies he abused is the Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B), which sends information about each aircraft (identification, current position, altitude, and so on) through an on-board transmitter to air traffic controllers, and allows aircrafts equipped with the technology to receive flight, traffic and weather information about other aircrafts currently in the air in their vicinity. The other one is the Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS), which is used to exchange messages between aircrafts and air traffic controllers via radio or satellite, as well as to automatically deliver information about each flight phase to the latter. Both of these technologies are massively insecure and are susceptible to a number of passive and active attacks. Teso misused the ADS-B to select targets, and the ACARS to gather information about the onboard computer as well as to exploit its vulnerabilities by delivering spoofed malicious messages that affect the'behavior' of the plane."
Need to hijack a plane??? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:It has? (Score:2, Funny)
He's an inflatable autopilot, you insensitive clod!
Re:It has? (Score:5, Funny)
Aaaaand they were moving the touchdown zone elevation below ground, which is not a function of the signals being transmitted but of the physical location of the transmitting antennas. In fact, the entire ILS system is based on the physical properties of the antennas (bolted in place).
Now, I suppose you could put the high beam audio onto the low beam and vice versa IF the transmitters were computer controlled (and they almost certainly aren't.). All that would do is create confusion as the pilot intercepted the glideslope and noticed that he was flying into the glideslope from below yet the instrument said he was intercepting it from above. I don't think that would flag the display, but it certainly would have the pilot ignoring the ILS at least, and going around as a precaution.
But move the TDZE down? Impossible.
Hey! You are talking about a movie where they faxed fingerprints (100dpi) and got clear identification. Obviously they know more about science than YOU do!